Happy (Solar) New Year!
Following the success of last year's holiday card, we decided to do a similar project this year, organizing our community to send good wishes to the community of another great organization. This year, we're sending them halfway around the world to an elder center in Nepal.
Located in Kathmandu, the Ibasho center was founded in the wake of the massive earthquake in 2015 as a way to provide assistance to the elders in the community, who are often the ones most affected by natural disasters. (We'll have more about Ibasho and their wonderful founder in the forthcoming Issue 1 of For magazine.)
Today, we sent out almost 200 prayer flags to our friends and clients, with the request to write a short message of good wishes on it, and send it back to us. We will string the flags together and deliver them to the Ibasho center before the Sambat New Year in April. Marking the beginning of the lunar calendar, the celebration is a time to hang new flags, allowing them to gradually disintegrate in the wind and spread their wishes.
Traditional prayer flags outside a stupa in Kathmandu.
We created custom handmade prayer flags featuring a design composed of 365 dots printed in metallic bronze in the shape of a circle - symbolizing the sky, radiating messages of hope.
Prayer flags come in five colors - blue, white, red, green, and yellow - representing five elements: sky, air, fire, water, and earth. Each package sent includes a flag in one of these colors, and features a combination of all five colors across the various elements in the package.
If you received one in the mail, we sincerely hope you will send it back with a short message for the Nepali elders. If not, and you would like to participate, we have just a few left. Email us at creative@ultravirgo.com. We will send a photo of the final installation to everyone who participates.
All flags were handmade by our team - here are a few pics of the process:
