Friendship Day, also referred to as ‘mitrata diwas’ in India, is celebrated on the first Sunday of August each year. This coming year, it will likely be celebrated on August 6 that is, for obvious reasons, a Sunday. How and why did this very day fall on the first Sunday of August is for us to learn.
Human beings are social animals and so that you can co-exist on this planet, it has become mandatory for people to get friends. Friendship, a noble feeling, is probably the best gifts to human kind and also this day surely demands a celebration. Accordingly, in India as well as other countries, the initial Sunday of August was declared as being a special day committed to friends. Ever since, the nation continues to be celebrating Friendship Day on August’s first Sunday every year, that is a remarkable festival here.
In India, greater than a day, it will be the feelings that are more essential to individuals. Indians religiously celebrate this very day each year, showering their friends with gifts and flowers. Besides individuals, small, and large organizations, too, celebrate this very day by hosting events which will bring people together. Different gifts shops, both online and offline, have special items that are made especially to mark this day. As it falls on a Sunday, the rush about this day at various public gatherings is large. Restaurants and food chains claim to offer discount rates towards the customers who visit their outlet on that very day. India is a country where people are capable of building a business away from every small thing, be it Friendships Day or Independence Day.
Though, a few dates are still unknown in India. A couple of associations have been proved to celebrate Friendship Day Wishes upon an entirely different day altogether. For instance, the International Friendship Day falls on July 30 whereas, Ohio celebrates Friendship Day on April 8 every year. In Brazil, the Friend’s Day falls on July 20 and for Finland and Estonia, it lies on the day of Valentine’s Day, February 14. Peru celebrates its “El dia del Amigo” on the first Saturday of July each year. However, what remains constant in most these different dates is definitely the expression of love.
Interestingly, Friendship day is celebrated on different dates across countries. While in Oberlin, Ohio, Friendship Day is celebrated on April 8, after the World Friendship Crusade proposed July 30, 1958 as the first Friendship Day, recently the overall Assembly in the UN declared the date because the official day of celebrations. Yet some countries, including India still commemorate the festival on the first Sunday of August.
All of it began if the founder of Hallmark cards, Joyce Hall, proposed the celebrations in 1930. Before that, Friendship Day was promoted through greeting cards, but eventually people realised it had been a gimmick to qgohlr consumerism. Nevertheless in 1998, in honour in the holiday, Nane Annan, the wife of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, declared the adorable bear Winnie the Pooh since the global Ambassador of Friendship at the UN.
People especially in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and South American countries, now celebrate this very day by gifting the other person colourful bracelets that are known as ‘friendship bands’ in common parlance, cards, flowers and gifts to one another with this occasion. Additionally, some individuals celebrate National Women’s Friendship Day on every third Sunday in September, every third week of May is celebrated as New Friends Week and February is called the International Friendship Month.