Friendship Day
The International Friendship Day
celebrations traditionally take place on the first Sunday of August in many
places in the world. There are other places in the world that celebrate a
Friendship Day on another date.
During the
twentieth century, there were several initiatives for the celebration of
Friendship Day around the world. In the United States and parts of Asia, the
first Sunday of August was reported as the date of greeting and presenting
gifts to friends, and at various times similar celebrations were formed in
different countries of South America and Europe.
Friendship Day
was originally promoted by Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark cards in 1930,
intended to be 2 August and a day when people celebrated their friendships by
sending cards. The second of August was chosen as the centre of the largest
lull between holiday celebrations. Friendship Day was promoted by the greeting
card National Association during the 1920s but met with consumer resistance -
given that it was her too obviously a commercial gimmick to promote greetings
cards. By the 1940s the number of Friendship Day cards available in the US had
dwindled and the holiday largely died out there. There is no evidence to date
for its uptake in Europe; however, it has been kept alive and revitalised in
Asia, where several countries have adopted it.
The idea of a
World Friendship Day was first proposed on 20 July 1958 by Dr. Artemio Bracho
during a dinner with friends in Puerto Pinasco, a town on the River Paraguay
about 200 miles north of Asuncion, Paraguay.
The initiative to
establish an internationally recognized Friendship Day had a historical
antecedent, the World Friendship Crusade (Cruzada Mundial de la Amistad).
Designed by Dr. Ramón Artemio Bracho in Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay, in 1958, it
was a campaign aimed to promote friendship between human beings so that a
culture of peace would be fostered. As a result of this idea, July 30 was set
as Friendship Day (Día de la Amistad).
In Argentina, Dr.
Enrique Ernesto Febbraro, a native of Lomas de Zamora (which in recognition of
his initiative is the Provincial Capital of Friendship by city ordinance and
also the headquarters of the World Association for Understanding), professor of
psychology, philosophy, and history, musician, dentist, and founder of the
Rotary Clubs of San Cristóbal and Balvanera in Buenos Aires, created Friend's
Day after sending four thousand letters to a hundred countries around the world
(to which he received 700 replies) upon realizing that, by watching the Apollo
11 landing, for the first time all mankind was united. The first official
recognition of the day came from the government of Buenos Aires Province with
Decree 235/79, which authorized the celebration and made it official.
In Argentina Brazil
Friend's Day
(Spanish: Día del Amigo, Portuguese: Dia do Amigo) is observed every year on
July 20 in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and on July 30 in Paraguay.
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.
On 27 July 2011 the 65th Session of the United
Nations General Assembly declared 30 July as "International Day of
Friendship".
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