Friendship day, even though it isn’t a traditional holiday, has become something of a cultural festival around the world these days. Even though different regions of the world celebrate friendship day on different dates, most countries celebrate it on the first Sunday of august. It is a day for celebrating friendship, exchanging gifts with friends that one prizes the most and commemorating a relationship that isn’t usually celebrated through cultural or religious festivals. Here are some fascinating reasons behind the origins of friendship day celebrations.
Created by the greeting card industry
ask any old timer and he would tell you that the greeting card industry, along with chocolate manufacturers and florists unions’ are responsible for why days like Valentine’s Day, mother’s day, father’s day and friendship day even exist. Astonishingly, these accusations aren’t entirely unfounded. In fact, the founder of Hallmark Cards, Joyce Hall along with the National Association for greeting card manufacturers came up with the idea of having a friendship’s day on August 2, which fell right in the lull zone of greeting card worthy holidays. However, it being the 1920s, the association feared that customers would see right through it as a way to sell cards. However, the idea did pick up steam a decade and a half later and over time, friendships day began to be celebrated on the first Sunday of august.
International friendship day
The official International Friendship Day is observed on July 30 as the General Assembly of the United Nations declared that the proposal made in 1958 for such a day should be adopted. The reason for having an official international friendship day was to forge stronger cultural ties between different cultures of the world through public awareness-raising activities, education and interaction between members of different cultures and countries.
