About the Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration
Send a Monarch to Mexico
1998/1999
This fall, the 3rd annual "Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration" will be launched in collaboration with
Mexico City's Museo del Nino (Children's Museum) and classrooms across North America. You're invited to join the
celebration as students across the United States and Canada create thousands of paper butterflies that will "migrate"
to Mexico for the winter.
The butterflies' fall flight will be timed to correspond with the real monarchs' journey south. The paper butterflies
will 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 at the Museo del Nino will 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 will
rest in Mexico for the winter. Sometime next March, when the real monarchs' departure from Mexico is announced,
the paper butterflies will return to North America. Each butterfly will carry a special message from the Mexican
students to the students in Canada and U. S. who made them.
The migration of the monarch butterfly is one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the world. It is
also considered an "endangered phenomena" because scientists fear this incredible journey may not last
beyond the next decade. This celebration will symbolize an international partnership between Canada, the United
States, and Mexico. Joined by a fragile butterfly, shared hope will be carried across borders and between generations.
Please Join Us!
Your participation in this symbolic event represents tremendous international support for the monarch. As part
of the Symbolic Migration of 1997/1998, 48,372 U.S. and Canadian students made
paper butterflies which flew to Mexico for safekeeping over the winter. With a similar number of Mexican students
returning butterflies in the spring, a staggering total of over 80,000 students across North America contributed
to this effort.
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In Partnership With:
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Funding Provided By:
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Copyright 1998 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
How to Make a Monarch
