Amsterdam, Netherlands - An evening of stories, songs, poems, and food on May 3 enlivened the celebration of May Day, the ancient spring festival of the northern hemisphere; the Purification Azalea Festival of Cheongpyeong, Korea; and Netherlands' national days of honoring the dead and celebrating the liberation from Nazi Germany.
Resident musicians performed, including Hans Campman (piano), Eleanor Flowers Klerkx (singer), and Christopher Davies (voice, guitar, mouth organ, Irish drum, and bones). The evening was billed as spontaneous and informal.
The Universal Peace Federation seeks to go beyond the “tolerance” of Willem van Orange, admirable as that was in its day, and to involve itself in “cooperation” with those of all religions in seeking social justice; and to then go beyond that, in promoting & organizing the “celebration” of the goodness, love, and beauty inherent in all people of goodwill and in the teachings & practices of all the great religions and traditions of the world, including native shamanism and the new religious movements of our time. And beyond that again, to proclaim, without prejudice, that, whatever we profess to “believe,” we are living in a unique, new time when we are all being called to recreate ourselves and our environment, developing a new respect and responsibility for our ancestors, contemporaries, and future generations; and to celebrate and steward the world around us, both the natural and that built by our fellow humans.