WHY INTERNATIONAL FORGIVENESS DAY? 

Four decades ago humankind adopted its first global spiritual icon, the image of the Whole Earth.  This symbol of unity and oneness transcends all religious, ethnic, political, social, economic and other organizational and cultural structures that divide us. Thus far, the image of our planet is the only symbol of wholeness – of conflict transcended by co-operation - with which every human being can easily and readily identify.

It is now time to establish an annual worldwide holiday that also represents the transcendence of all divisiveness via the same universality and wholeness of spirit that is inherent in the Whole Earth image.  The prime directive of the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance is the establishment of such a global holiday: International Forgiveness Day.
  
We envision this global holiday as one that its celebrants design locally, regionally and nationally for themselves via participation in supportive website, e-mail and other Internetworking activities.

An annual worldwide day of forgiveness is a holiday whose time is at hand, as it becomes increasingly probable that a critical mass of receptivity to forgiveness now exists in humankind's collective consciousness. This receptivity represents humanity's potential willingness to resolve the grievances that fragment our societies and environments, a willingness that is now susceptible to mobilization and actualization on a global scale.

Because our political leaders see themselves as the custodians of their constituency's grievances, humankind's growing receptivity to forgiveness must become plainly evident to these leaders as the direction in which their constituencies are moving.  The originators of the International Forgiveness Day initiative are convinced that when hundreds of millions of individuals and groups in the 300+ nations and territories are observing International Forgiveness Day annually worldwide, our national and international leaders will be persuaded to make it the world's first official global holiday.

Hence our strategy of assembling a global parade of forgiveness that will inspire the world's leaders to get in front of it.