The 2024 theme of International Day of Peace is Cultivating a Culture of Peace. It is the notion that “the ideas of peace, the culture of peace, need to be cultivated in the minds of children and communities through formal and informal education, across countries and generations.”

Background

The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Two decades later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire.

The Hawaii Federation of Junior Young Buddhist Association submitted a resolution to establish a Hongwanji Peace Day to the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii Legislative Assembly in 2007. On April 18, 2007, Governor Linda Lingle signed the bill making Hawaii the first state in the United States to recognize September 21 as Peace Day.