Despite the cultural and religious diversity of beliefs that enrich life on our planet, we can all recognize a series of popular universal symbols and their meaning, although we do not know their origin for sure.
Many of the popular universal symbols that we know today were not born with the same meaning that we give them today and it is precisely this particular that makes knowing their history so fascinating. Next we will reveal the origin of several of the most famous symbols
Peace symbol: History places the birth of this symbol in 1958 when it was designed by Gerald Holtom for the «Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Narcotics Commission», according to this reading the symbol is composed of the letters D and N; the initials of Nuclear Disarmament.
Its use became popular in the 60s and 70s when the hippie movement used it as a protest against the Vietnam War.
Red Cross Symbol: In 1859 and after witnessing the lack of medical care for the wounded in the battle of Solferino between France and Austria, the Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant proposed the creation of an organization that would be responsible for providing care in these situations. Five years later, the movement proposed by Dunant began, whose symbol was inspired by the Swiss flag, Dunant’s country of origin, but the reverse of the colors was proposed considering that the red cross on the white would be recognizable from a distance.
Happy face: The popular smiling face that we know all over the world and that cannot be missing from the now popular “emojis”, was created in 1963 by Harvey Ball. Ball’s job was for an insurance company looking for a symbol to improve employee attitudes after merging with another company. The symbol was placed on buttons, business cards, and much more office supplies.
By 1971, the success of the smiley face had gone beyond the walls of the insurance company and 50 million items bearing the symbol had been sold worldwide. Harvey never registered his creation and the only thing he received for the design of one of the most popular symbols in history was a check for 4.5 dollars.
Medical symbol: The staff with a coiled snake is the symbol of medicine and its meaning is associated with the Roman and Greek cultures and their gods of medicine, who had a staff as a symbol. The god of medicine was Aesculapius for the Romans and Asklepios for the Greeks.
The rod was taken as a symbol of the profession and was accompanied by the snake that means rejuvenation due to its ability to change its skin. In addition, the intertwined serpent shape symbolizes the number 8, representation of balance and cosmic movement as the basis of regeneration.
The most popular universal symbols facilitate communication between all people in the worldand it is that in any situation there are values and needs that are common to all humans.