Three Minutes World Silence

As the General Post Office clock nearby chimed and then struck the eleventh hour, all the strangers, including Mary, held hands.

May felt a powerful surge of positive energy through the linked hands. She experienced a strong feeling of optimism and hope. After some time of shared silence, the group finally dispersed.

Mary went home and over the next three days conceived the idea of a united silence for the world which she called ‘3 MINUTES WORLD SILENCE’.

Gradually people learned of this event, held every January 1st at 11.00 o’clock in the morning; three minutes of positive thinking for every one of us to remember the future and to wish for peace.

Through letter writing, the media, the internet, exhibitions and tapestries, Mary has spread an aura of peace around the world.

In 1986, Mary and Peter went round the world to spread word of the World Silence. In the Soviet Union the idea was accepted officially, resulting in people throughout the USSR being advised of the World Silence for 1990.

Ros Bandt brought the World Silence to another level of global consciousness in 1992 with her soundscape ‘Footsteps’. These sounds of the world, including the bells of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre In Jerusalem and a baby’s heartbeat, reach many people each January 1st via radio. The sound of a ticking clock illustrates the time of silence.

Silence is the Sound of the Universe

The sound of silence has many meanings. There is the silence when the wind sighs through the trees, rustling the leaves, then suddenly ceases.

The silence after an orchestra reaches a powerful climax of sound, then ends. The fearful silence as an air-raid siren completes its shrill warning. The hushed sound of a silent library, and of a church filled with silent prayer. Mary Cassini believes the World Silence, pausing in every time zone each January lst, beginning at the International Date Line, unites all races, ideologies and beliefs. It gives us all a chance to pause and reflect on our global responsibility to each other and to our earth.

Mary Cassini,
Oakbank, South Australia 5243
22 April,2003

Artist

• Cassini, Mary

Commissioned Artist

• Bandt, Ros