Three lines inside a circle: the symbol of Peace (☮) is absolutely one of the most recognisableyet not everyone knows its origin. Despite what we might think, this was not born as a symbol of peace but of the movement for peace nuclear disarmament in the 60s.
History and origins: who invented it and when
The symbol was officially born on February 21, 1958 from the hand of Gerald Holtom, British illustrator and graphic designer, who was working on a logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), that is, that English campaign that promoted the nuclear disarmament: A few years had passed since the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the tense climate of the Cold War did nothing but increase the fear of a new attack of this type.
In those years there were therefore numerous peaceful protests on the streets of the cities and precisely for one of these – the one in London’s Trafalgar Square – it was decided to create a symbol for the movement that could be waved on flags and billboards.
The meaning of the shape of the peace symbol
To this day it is not known exactly what Holtom’s idea was, given that over the years he himself told different versions of the same story.
The first of these claims that the symbol is nothing more than a stylized version that combines the letters No And D in traffic light alphabet – that is, that alphabet produced by the movement of flags and usually used in the navy – within a circle. These two letters, represented in the image below, would stand for “Nuclear Disarmament” – that is, nuclear disarmament.
The second story instead tells us that those three lines would be nothing more than the stylized version of a person with his arms open downwards, as a sign of surrender.
Regardless of what the true origin is, it is interesting to note how in a short time that plan went from being closely linked to antinuclearism to becoming a symbol of peace for entire generations.
In reality, there are other symbols of peace, from dove with an olive branchup to the same flag of peace, rainbow color.
