Filed by Meg Taylor on September 23rd, 2006
 Victoria Taylor’s art, “Peace”
My daughter’s school has an annual holiday on October 2 to honor the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. In past years, our five-year-old Victoria has experienced the holiday, known in India as Gandhi Jayanti, as just a day off from school. But we want her to know whom we’re honoring and why. So, this year, as a tribute to Gandhi’s universal messages of civil (non-violent) disobedience, truth, and harmony across classes and religions, here’s what we’re going to do:
- Tell Victoria about Gandhi and the gifts that he gave India and the world
- Do artwork
- Eat vegetarian Indian food
- Allow a glass of saltwater to evaporate over the next 10 days so that by October 2, we will have “made salt�. This is to remember Gandhi’s peaceful fight in 1930 against the British salt tax during which he and Indian followers similarly created their own salt.
We hope that Victoria will internalize some of Gandhi’s principles, which inspired Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and other great world leaders. Our wish for her is that she will learn and come to deeply believe that people are more than their caste, religious beliefs, race, gender and other details that people use to categorize us. And a greater understanding – and celebration – of what makes us different is how we can reach our true potential as human beings. 
Victoria Taylor displays the salt that she “made” in honor of Mahatma Gandhi.