Children’s assembly Banner of Peace focuses on peace in 2026

The International Children’s Assembly Banner of Peace, one of Bulgaria’s best-known international youth festivals during the 1980s, returns this year as part of the International Children’s Day celebrations on 1 June. Organisers say the event aims to revive the assembly’s original belief that the voices and laughter of children can become a force for peace.

The Banner of Peace movement was founded in 1979 by Lyudmila Zhivkova, who was then chair of Bulgaria’s Committee for Culture and the daughter of communist leader Todor Zhivkov. Based on the idea of promoting peace through creativity, the initiative brought together thousands of children from dozens of countries. Today, its mission is being continued by Zhivkova’s daughter, Evgenia Zhivkova.

The idea for the assembly emerged following the United Nations' declaration of 1979 as the International Year of the Child. Initially, Bulgaria’s Committee for Culture planned an international exhibition of children’s artwork, but this concept quickly evolved into something much larger. The first assembly was hosted in Sofia, with children from 77 countries taking part. On the final day of the 10-day event, the Banner of Peace monument was inaugurated - a complex featuring 68 bells, each donated by a different country and intended to be rung only by children.

At the opening ceremony of the monument, Lyudmila Zhivkova delivered a speech full of the grand symbolism typical of the era. She spoke of 'children, creators of the new world' and described creativity, beauty and brotherhood as the guiding forces for the future.

The motto of the first assembly was 'Unity, Creativity, Beauty'. Between 1979 and 1988, a further three assemblies were held at the Bells complex near Sofia, bringing together 3,900 children from 138 countries and 14,000 Bulgarian participants. During the festivals, the children created artworks together and discovered the cultures of the participating countries.

One of the movement’s most recognisable symbols became the song Hello, Hello, Sofia Assembly!, written in 1983 by composer Petar Stupel and lyricist Petya Yordanova and performed by the Bodra Smyana children’s choir.

After 1989, the initiative largely faded away. However, a decade later, in 1999, Evgenia Zhivkova revived the Banner of Peace on a much smaller scale through the Lyudmila Zhivkova–Banner of Peace Foundation. She sought to preserve her mother’s idea of direct communication among children through creativity and shared talent.

According to Evgenia Zhivkova, today’s world is very different from that of the first assembly, which is precisely why its original message of “Unity, Creativity and Beauty” needs to be heard again by a new generation of children and young people. This year’s edition carries the motto “Children for Peace on the Planet” and focuses on what organisers describe as humanity’s most fundamental right - peace, as the foundation of every nation’s prosperity.

This year's participants will mainly be from Bulgaria. The programme includes a children’s concert and demonstrations of popular games from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. A new bell, donated by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, will also be consecrated and added to the Bells Monument in Sofia’s Mladost district.

The Bells Monument stands 37 metres high and consists of four vertical concrete pylons pointing toward the four directions of the world. At their summit, they form a large open sphere containing seven bells symbolising the seven continents. Another 20 bells, known as “the singers”, are located at the base and, together with the main seven, can be used to perform musical compositions. The monument is surrounded by two semicircular structures displaying bells donated by participating countries.

Notable features of the monument include an 11th-century bell, a 1,300-kilogram Bulgarian bell commemorating the 1,300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state, and the first bell added since 1989, which was a gift from Pope John Paul II during his visit to Bulgaria in 2002.

The Bulgarian National Radio Golden Fund preserves a recording of Banner of Peace, a song composed by Dimitar Petkov with lyrics by Assen Bosev, which was performed by the Bulgarian National Radio Children’s Choir on 1 June 1979:

The BNR archives also contain authentic recordings of the monument’s bells:

Editor: Desislava Semkovska