Volunteers construct a giant, luminous peace symbol made of hundreds of tea candles inside white paper bags at Santa Monica Beach during the Kick off for the "World March for Peace and Nonviolence" on Friday, October 2, 2009. World March for Peace and Nonviolence begins its 93-day journey across the planet. That date also marks the “International Day of Non-Violence,” established by the UN in 2007 to recognize the importance of nonviolence as a way of life and as a tactic of social change and the 140th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. World March for Peace celebrates the spirit of nonviolence, diversity, and world peace. The World March for Peace and Nonviolence is an unprecedented social mobilization which aims to create consciousness of the dangerous global situation in which we are living -- a situation marked by the heightened probability of nuclear conflict, a renewed arms race, and the violent military occupation of foreign territories. To avoid a future nuclear catastrophe we must surpass violence today, demanding: nuclear disarmament at a global level; the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories; the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons; the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries; the renunciation by governments of the use of war as a means to resolve conflicts. The World March was first proposed by the Humanist Movement through one of its affiliated organizations, World Without Wars. Since its launch, the number of countries participating has more than doubled, and the March has received the endorsement of thousands of people, pacifist and nonviolence groups, a variety of educational, political, and religious institutions, and renowned figures from the worlds of science, arts, and politics. It is developing into the largest mobilization for peace in history.