Did you know that friendship has a day to celebrate on the calendar, although many people celebrate it daily? Did you know that this day mobilizes tens of millions of people around the world? Well, as a friend of your friends, it’s not bad for you to know. We tell you all about it Friendship’s Day: When is, why is it celebrated and what is its origin
Friendship Day: when is it
Many people do not know that there is a Friendship Day, it seems even more complicated that they know when is friendship day. You can forget about the friendship but, for God’s sake, never better said, don’t forget when is valentine.
The truth is that the International Friendship Day is celebrated on July 30 and it is a celebration that extends to the entire planet. The reason is simple, to pay homage to an integrating and disinterested element such as friendship. A feeling capable of breaking down borders, prejudices and uniting people, a priori, antagonistic.
The international friendship day It is a song to solidarity, to altruism, to our group of people so close and to everything that friendship has generated for centuries. Stories, agreements, treaties, approaches… Undoubtedly, feelings like friendship deserve to be celebrated and this International Friendship Day is the perfect date to do so.
Although it is celebrated around the world on July 30, there are some countries in South America that advance it a few days. For example in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay do it on July 20, instead of July 30. In bolivia opt for July 23. Of course, they celebrate the Day of the Friend. Is not the same.
For its part, in Peru do it on the first Saturday of Julyfall the day it falls, while in India choose the first Sunday of August.
This being the case, and to give a certain meaning to the celebration, globalizing it, The United Nations General Assembly in 2011 decided to declare, officially, July 30 as International Friendship Day. A proposal that came from the hand of the World Friendship Crusade and was received in a friendly way by the UN, how could it be otherwise.
Friendship Day: why it is celebrated
Obviously there is a reason which celebrates the International Day of Friendship and it is as simple as resorting to this feeling to infuse peace movements that serve to end the violence, inequality, the wars, poverty and achieve a more equitable and sustainable planet.
Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of Friendship Day is to achieve world peaceespecially in areas that have been in armed conflict for a longer time.
For example in 2019the central theme on which pivoted the International Day of Friendship was to reduce violence in the classroom, bullying and abuse. To achieve this, the UN, as the organizer, was the backbone of the Friendship Day to make all the sectors involved in Education get fully involved in the project.
Thus, from Administrations, to teachers, through students, parents, associations and educational staff, they did everything on their part to put an end to the abuses that many students suffer daily in classrooms around the world.
In numbers, we talk about 150 million students who have suffered abuse or harassment from their classmates at school or institute, especially between 13 and 15 years old, at the height of mental development, which in many cases leaves sequels for life. This, among many other aspects, wants to avoid the International Day of Friendship.
The relevance of the International Day of Friendship lies in the importance given by the Administrations that organize itaware of the values that these celebrations transmit to their youngest citizens.
Friendship Day: what is its origin
But,what is the origin of Friendship Day? Well, obviously, everything has its origin in a group of friends. In this case, you have to travel to the June 20, 1958when several friends got together to commemorate Arbor Day in a town called Puerto Pinasco, in Paraguay.
Things in life and the people around you, Dr. Artemio Bracho proposes that, if there is an Arbor Day, why not have a Friendship Day that is, even more than the tree, the element that has united them in that event. As simple as the argument was, it was considered more than valid and there began to forge the International Day of Friendship.
That same day it founded the World Friendship Crusade and that same year, just one month later, the First Friendship Week took place. The motto of the World Friendship Crusade was For a better and more humane world. If they have succeeded, let each one decide by looking around.
The matter came to Central Administration of Paraguay and was the Ministry of Education and Culture Paraguayan who assumed the powers of the celebration of this day.
In fact, it didn’t take long to launch the resolution No. 242 of the Ministry of Education of Paraguay that established July 30 as Friendship Day. was the year 1964 and these friends had taken six years for their idea to become a national celebration.
A celebration that, shortly after, had scattered throughout Latin America. Obviously, it did not take long to reach the United Nations.
Thus, since the mid-twentieth century, the international friendship day brings friends together and invites them to exchange gifts, messages, confessions and open their hearts and souls to show what true friendship is. It goes without saying that the game of the Secret Santa is an already consolidated tradition this Friendship Day.
Thus, more than half a century later, it would be the General Assembly of the United Nations that would take the step of turning the International Day of Friendship into a global celebration. It did so through a consensus agreement with the 192 member states, in the Resolution 65/275 of May 3, 2011. Since then, July 30 is the International Day of Friendship around the world.