All We Are (Still) Saying, Is Give Peace a Chance

Bust out your jammies and pillows. The World March for Peace and Nonviolence has rescheduled the 40th anniversary reenactment of John and Yoko's 1969 Bed-In, which was originally scheduled to take place in Central Park in June. The new date is Aug. 16, when activists, couples and activist couples will meet in Central Park's Sheep Meadow (near the West 67th Street entrance) at 1:00 p.m. According to Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace website, "We will form a human peace sign made of peace loving couples. Wear white; bring white sheets and pillows."

1969 was a big year for the anti-war movement. On March 25 to 31, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held the first Bed-In for world peace at the Amsterdam Hilton. Holding all-day press conferences in their pajamas, the couple celebrated their marriage publicly, taking the opportunity to spread their anti-war message. Photographer Nico Koster recently discovered a roll of lost negatives in his archives of the original Bed-In, and is releasing them in a public exhibit and online photo gallery called "Room 902 Amsterdam Hilton Hotel."

The second and more well-know Bed-In was held at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where on June 1, Lennon and Ono recorded the song "Give Peace a Chance." Up to 50 guests witnessed the momentous event, including Timothy Leary, poet Allen Ginsberg, Petula Clark and the Canadian chapter of the Hare Krishnas.

According to the Pressenza International Press Agency, Chris Wells, a World March representative, called the 40th anniversary Bed-In celebration a "tribute to two remarkable beings that dared to dream and used their imagination to support and promote the planet's most urgent need." The Bed-In reenactment is an early rumbling of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which will begin in New Zealand on Oct. 2, 2009, and end in Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina on Jan. 2, 2010, but not before covering 160,000 kilometers (99,419 miles) across 95 countries. The event already lists over a million participants.

That's quite a journey, but it's always been a long road to peace.

Top photo courtesy of Roy Kerwood, via Wikipedia Creative Commons.