I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this story covered in my local newspaper… so much so that I had to seek it out online and post it for you here.
The basics? A homeowner’s association in Colorado is fining a homeowner $25 a day for their display of a Christmas wreath in the shape of a peace symbol. Other residents in the subdivision disapprove, for reasons as diverse as disagreeing with the perceived protest of the Iraq war… to offense that the symbol is a sign of Satan. Seriously.
Seems to me that the thin air is getting to people out there…
I was taught in church that the peace symbol when it was really popular in the late 60’s and early 70’s was really a broken cross.
Interesting. Not being alive back then, I’d never heard that… 🙂
Since I’ve only known one meaning for the symbol in my lifetime, and this piqued my curiosity, I did a bit of research into the matter. Here’s what wikipedia says regarding the peace symbol:
“This forked symbol was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, and originally, its use was confined to supporters of that organization. It was later generalised to become an icon of the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a commercial designer and artist in Britain. He had been commissioned by the CND to design a symbol for use at an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England.
The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphoric signals for the letters “N” and “D,” standing for Nuclear Disarmament. In semaphore the letter “N” is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down “V,” and the letter “D” is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals imposed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol. In the original design the lines widened at the edge of the circle.”
Further on, the article touches on your point, Debbie:
“The fact that the symbol resembles a bird foot in a circle gave rise to spurious alternative interpretations, ranging from plain mockery of “crow’s foot” or “The Footprint of the American Chicken” (suggesting that peace activists were cowards) to a number of occult meanings, such as an upside down crucifix with the arms broken downward, suggesting the way that St. Peter was martyred. Others have claimed that the symbol resembles a medieval sign known as “Nero’s Cross” that represents Satanism. Alternatively, some have suggested that the symbol is an inverted Elhaz rune, which would reverse the rune’s general meaning from ‘life’ to ‘death’. Gerald Holtom’s explanation of the genesis of the symbol and his first drawings of it, however, do not support those interpretations.”
Interesting stuff.
Very interesting.I didn’t know how the peace sign came about, I just thought it was cool and accepted it for what it was to signify which was of course peace. When I was young, we just thought it was cool. You could have left out the part about you not being alive then. 🙂
Sorry, Debbie… I couldn’t resist! 🙂