This
year's deadline has passed. Please join is in 2007!
It is too late to
send symbolic monarchs to Mexico
this year. Watch for next year's
postmark deadline in October, 2007. |
Over
65,000 paper butterflies were made in the fall of 2006 by children
in the United States and Canada, and sent to the children who
live beside the monarch sanctuaries in Mexico. These Symbolic
Monarch ambassadors will come back next spring and "migrate" back
to classrooms when the actual monarchs begin their journey
north.
The
butterflies' fall flight is timed to correspond with the real
monarchs' journey south. The paper butterflies arrive in Mexico
around the time of the Dia de los Muertos (November 2), just
as the real monarchs do. According to Mexican legend, these
returning butterflies are thought to carry the ancestors' souls
and play a role in the Dia de los Muertos celebrations.
Mexican
students from the sanctuary region greet the butterflies and
watch over them during the winter months. At the same time
in the mountains nearby, the entire eastern population of North
American monarch butterflies rests in Mexico for the winter.
In
March, when the real and symbolic butterflies return it's as
if the students have traveled with them. The concept of a global
community is not an abstraction but an everyday experience.
United by a fragile butterfly, the children of Mexico, the
U.S. and Canada have established a cycle of friendship and
stewardship.