Peace Ceremony at Milan City 5th District, Special Council for Peace, Milan, Italy.
Event Date: May 9, 2026
Posted: June 1, 2026
On the 9th of May, we planted an original Peace Pole and held a flag ceremony at the “Special Council of Peace” in Milan’s 5th District. For many years, I have been engaged in peace activities across Italy supported by local municipalities, but this time it was a truly groundbreaking and first in Italian history for the City Council itself to act as the organizer of a peace ceremony, with us working together as intimate partner. This achievement and success were made possible thanks to Laura Ricchina, the head librarian of the same district and a member of MPPOEI Italy, who has been steadfastly continuing her peace activities for over 20 years and has built a strong relationship of trust with this district council members.
The event commenced with the unveiling of an octagonal wooden Peace Pole, designed by the 5th District Mayor Natale Carapellese himself, with peace messages in 16 languages. Speeches by the District Mayor and the President of Milan City Council marked the opening of the ceremony. One of the peace messages was in symbolic language for people with autism and those who find it difficult to communicate verbally. Furthermore, sign language interpretation was provided throughout the event for 3.5 hours.
Following this, the participants moved into the council chamber for a special council meeting on Peace. Representatives from ten different political parties each offered a speech on the importance of building inner peace, and representatives of the Catholic, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist faiths shared their thoughts and wishes for world peace, after which a flag ceremony with peace prayers for each country of the world took place. Councilors, religious leaders, public participants and also children’s representatives from primary, junior high and senior high schools in the 5th district lively participated in the peace ceremony as flag bearers.
It was deeply moving to be able to dedicate our united prayers for peace to every nation in all national languages, together with some 170 participants. All participants were united in a spirit of peace; by praying together for peace in all nations and transcending all kinds of borders. (Sonoko Tanaka, MPPOEI Representative for Italy)
(The 16 languages on the Peace Pole are as follows: Italian, pictographic symbols, Russian, Romanian, Filipino, Swahili, Ukrainian, Hindi, French, Arabic, English, Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Japanese and Hebrew. Apart from Japanese and English, the foreign languages were selected in order of the size of the foreign resident population in this district.)
Love,
Sonoko Tanaka
Representative in Italy
May Peace Prevail On Earth International