Each year on September 21, San Domenico students, faculty and staff pause during our busy school day to gather around the Peace Pole and celebrate International Peace Day. Each year we add a new language to our Peace Pole, and this year we added Navajo, the first Native American language.

“In the Navajo language there is no word for religion or art,” shared Director of Philosophy, Ethics and World Religions Mirza Khan.  “The word that could be used to describe both is ‘hózhó’- a word that defines the essence of Navajo philosophy.  It encompasses beauty, harmony, and striving for balance.” 

The ceremony featured readings and storytelling in the Navajo tradition by native Navajo speaker and SD math teacher Dr. Adrian Smith, as well as music by our second grade chorus. The ceremony concluded with the fifth-grade students reading a Navajo blessing:
 
A Navajo blessing:

In beauty may I walk,
All day long may I walk,
Through the returning seasons may I walk,
On a trail of flowers may I walk,
With grasshoppers at my feet may I walk,
With beauty all around may I walk.