During the week beginning 19th January, students at the Lighthouse celebrated World Religion Day. This day happens annually on the third Sunday of January and this year it fell on the 18th. The purpose of this day is to promote understanding and peace between all religions as well as encouraging people to learn about other faiths and consider the similarities rather than differences between them. It was started by followers of the Bahá’í faith in 1950 as they believe all religions have common features and should be respected equally.
A display was set up in the conference room to get students thinking about different religions, the reason behind the day itself and to engage in some related activities.
The first activity was matching the religion to its symbol. I’m sure many could recognise the symbols for Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but symbols for Zoroastrianism and Confucianism proved a lot more difficult. Another activity asked students to look at the countries pinpointed on the globe and to guess what the major religion is there. Do you know what the main religion is in Sweden, Thailand and Egypt, for example?
A contemplative activity was also presented which allowed students to consider what various pieces of artwork may be depicting. We looked at Rembrandt’s famous interpretation of ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’. Notably, Rembrandt included a self-portrait within the painting. Are you able to spot him? Other artwork included ‘Scenes from the Passion of Christ’ by Hans Memling, which shows 23 different scenes of Christ’s final week before his death, resurrection and ascension. There were also some images from the Islamic faith which often focus on geometric patterns.
The final activity involved reading various quotes and deciding what the common theme was. What do you think the common theme is in the sayings below?
“Do not hurt others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful” – Buddhism
“The truly enlightened ones are those who neither incite fear in others nor fear anyone themselves” – Sikhism
“Blessed is he who prefers his brother before himself” – Baha’I
“None of you is a believer until you love for your neighbour what you love for yourself” – Islam
World Religion Day was a good opportunity to recognise that despite different paths, many traditions seek similar goals such as compassion, justice and kindness.
