🕊️ Olive branch

The olive branch is one of the oldest symbols of peace and hope. It goes back to the biblical Flood, when a dove brought Noah an olive leaf. Ancient Greece crowned Olympic victors with olive wreaths, and today olive branches appear on the UN emblem and flag and on the Great Seal of the United States.

The image comes from the biblical account of the Flood in chapter 8 of the Book of Genesis. Noah released a dove from the ark several times. The second time, the bird returned in the evening with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak, and Noah understood that the waters had receded from the earth. Seven days later the dove did not come back at all. Because of this story, the dove with an olive became a sign of hope and reconciliation.

In ancient Greece the olive had a glory of its own. Winners of the Olympic Games were rewarded not with money but with a wreath of wild olive branches — according to Herodotus, this greatly astonished the Persians. In Athens the olive was considered a gift of the goddess Athena.

The modern world has chosen this sign too. In 1946 the UN General Assembly approved the emblem: a map of the world between two olive branches. On 20 October 1947, resolution 167 (II) adopted the flag — the same emblem on a light blue field, the blue chosen in contrast to red, the colour of war. On the Great Seal of the United States, since 1782 the eagle has held an olive branch and arrows — signs of the power of peace and war, which belongs to Congress. And in 2019 UNESCO, on the initiative of Lebanon and Tunisia, unanimously proclaimed 26 November World Olive Tree Day and called the olive a universal symbol of peace.