Today at Towey, we learned about prayer flags and the students made their own for the upcoming Earth Day.
Prayer flags are rectangular pieces of cloth bearing prayers and mantras that can be found strung along trails and peaks in the Himalayas. Contrary to popular belief, these flags are not meant to carry messages to gods. Tibetans believe that the prayers and mantras written on them are blown on the wind to spread good will and compassion to all the world.
Tibetan prayer flags come in sets of five; one in each of five colors, which represent the five elements. The five colors are arranged from left to right in a specific order: blue, white, red, green, and yellow.
Blue symbolizes the sky and space
White symbolizes the air and wind
Red symbolizes fire
Green symbolizes water
Yellow symbolizes earth
Our prayer flags were made out of construction paper. Every student created their own prayer flag with a picture of their own creation, and then we hung the prayer flags up on a string in the classroom.
