Friendship Day
| Friendship Day | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | International |
| Date | 30 July internationally, with varying dates for individual countries |
| Frequency | Annual |
Friendship Day (also known as International Friendship Day or Friend's Day) is a day in several countries for celebrating friendship 13. It was initially promoted by the greeting cards' industry; evidence from social networking sites shows a revival of interest in the holiday that may have grown with the spread of the internet, particularly in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Mobile phones, digital communication and social media have contributed to popularize the custom. Those who promote the holiday in South Asia attribute the tradition of dedicating a day in honour of friends to have originated in the United States in 1935.[1]
History
Friendship day was first proposed in Paraguay in 1958 by Joyce Hall. It was a holiday involving the celebration of friendships through a global holiday. The original Date Of Celebration was August 2nd, though it has since been moved to August 7th due to de-synchronization in the United States[2]
In honor of Friendship Day in 1998, Nane Annan, wife of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship at the United Nations. The event was co-sponsored by the U.N. Department of Public Information and Disney Enterprises, and was co-hosted by Kathy Lee Gifford.[3]
The idea of a Global Friendship Day was first proposed on July 20th, 1958, by Dr. Ramon Artemio Bracho during a dinner with friends in Puerto Pinasco, a town on the River Paraguay about 200 miles north of Asuncion, Paraguay.[4]
During said meeting, the World Friendship Crusade was born. The World Friendship Crusade is a foundation that promotes friendship and fellowship among all human beings, regardless of race, color or religion. Since then, July 30th has been ferverently celebrated as Friendship Day in Paraguay every year and has also been adopted by several other countries.[5]
The World Friendship Crusade has lobbied the United Nations for several years to recognise July 30th as World Friendship Day and finally in 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to designate the 30th of July as the International Day of Friendship; and would proceed to invite all the Member States to observe the International Day of Friendship in accordance with the culture and customs of their local, national and regional communities, including through education and public awareness-raising activities.[6][7]
Celebrations in February
In Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, Finland, Estonia and the Dominican Republic, Friendship Day is celebrated on February 14th, the same date as Valentine's Day, to serve as an alternative for those who are yet to find a romantic partner.
Celebrations in April
In South Africa, celebrations are on the 16th of April.
Celebrations in June
In Ukraine, celebrations are on the 9th of June.
Celebrations in July
In Ecuador and Venezuela, celebrations are on 14 July. In Pakistan, this event is celebrated on 19 July every year. In Bolivia, Friendship Day is celebrated on 23 July.[8] In Nepal, Friendship Day is celebrated on 30 July.[citation needed]
In Paraguay, July 29th is used for giving gifts to close friends and family. Celebrations often take place in bars and nightclubs.[9] The game of the Invisible Friend (Amigo Invisible) is considered a tradition, in which small sheets of paper with names are given to members of a group andeach of them secretly selects on another, and on July 30th gives a present to the person whos name was written on the paper. This custom is practiced in both schools and workplaces in Asunción and other Paraguayan cities.[10]
Since 2009, Peru has celebrated "El dia del Amigo" on the first Saturday of July. The date was proposed by the beer brand Pilsen Callao. The objective was to recognize true friendship and differentiate it from love and the celebration of Valentine's Day.[8]
In Argentina, Brazil,[11] Spain and Uruguay, Friendship Day (or Friend's Day) is celebrated on 20 July.[8] It is a reason for a friendly gathering and greeting both current and old friends.
It became a popular celebration thanks to Enrique Ernesto Febbraro, an Argentinian dentist and Rotarian who had the idea to commemorate International Friendship as an unifying gesture of friendship among nations, inspired by the day Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon. He sent 1,000 letters to contacts from the Rotary Club around the world while the Apollo 11 was still in space and received 700 responses that kickstarted the celebration.[12]
In Argentina, Friend's Day has turned into a very popular mass phenomenon. For instance, in 2005, the amount of well-wishing messages and calls led to a breakdown of the mobile phone network in the cities of Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Córdoba and Rosario, comparable to the one experienced in 2004 on Christmas and New Year's Day.[13] Seats in most restaurants, bars, and other establishments are often completely booked a week before the celebration.[14][additional citation(s) needed]
Celebrations in August
In India Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in the month of August. The celebration got huge widespread among the teenagers and youngsters in the early 1990s with the influence of Bollywood movies. Friends tie a Friendship band (a ribbon band) to each other as a gesture of celebrating their friendship. College students generally wear a white t-shirt on that day and they write each other’s names or friendship quotes on it.
Bibliography
- Schmidt, E.L. (1991). "The Commercialisation of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870–1930". The Journal of American History. 78 (3): 887–916. doi:10.2307/2078795. JSTOR 2078795. [UN Resolution A/65/L.72]
References
- ^ In India the Friendship Day will be celebrated on May 18,2011. In India and Kashmir the Friendship Day will be celebrated on 7 August 2011
- ^ "National Friendship Day". NationalDay. 26 January 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
- ^ Nations, United. "Winnie the Pooh". United Nations. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
- ^ "ONU aprobó 30 de julio como Día de la Amistad". Retrieved 18 September 2013.
- ^ Munro, Robert, ed. (2010). Paraguay 200 Years of Independence in the Heart of South America. Oxford: Whap. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-9567405-1-9.
- ^ UN Res.A/65/L.72
- ^ "International Day of Friendship". United Nations. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
- ^ a b c "Dia del amigo. ¿Qué países lo celebran el 20 de julio?". La Nación (in Spanish).
- ^ "Happy Friendship Day 2019: Why do we celebrate 'friendship day'?". Jagran English. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
- ^ "Friendship day 2019: History, significance of the day when people commemorate bonds that turned strangers into friends – India News , Firstpost". Firstpost. 3 August 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
- ^ BRAZIL, Câmara dos Deputados. Datas Comemorativas Archived 21 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine. March 2003.
- ^ "Día del amigo: la historia del argentino que propuso festejarlo el 20 de julio" (in Spanish). 20 July 2019.
- ^ "Los teléfonos de saturaron por los saludos del día del amigo".
- ^ "The Invaluable Value of Friendship". MorungExpress. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
External links
- International Day of Friendship 30 July
