The International Day of Happiness is celebrated throughout the world on 20th March. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 28 June 2012. The International Day of Happiness recognizes the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings. Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Happiness is a fuzzy concept and can mean many things to many people. Part of the challenge of a science of happiness is to identify different concepts of happiness, and where applicable, split them into their components.
Background
The initiative to declare a day of happiness came from Bhutan a country whose citizens are considered to be some of the happiest people in the world. The Himalayan Kingdom has championed an alternative measure of national and societal prosperity, called the Gross National Happiness Index (GNH). The GNH rejects the sole use of economic and material wealth as an indicator of development, and instead adopts a more holistic outlook, where spiritual well-being of citizens and communities is given as much importance as their material well-being.
Purpose on International day of Happiness
- Reduces stress, enhances emotional intelligence, increase focus and decreases anxiety.
- Helps one to inculcate the positive attitude towards life
- To overcome affliction
- Makes closer to your loved ones
- Count blessing and be grateful
- Make people realize being happy make you sleep well, don’t need to strive for sleep, it works
- Being happy will reduces stress and prevents heart disease.
- This day teaches us to take out time from our busy and hectic schedules for our loved ones.
- Make habit of being and making other happy as it could make you happier
- Happiest person feel motivated and productive at job
- One feels more energized. Happiness increases confidence in leading life.
Action for happiness
- For the first International Day of Happiness in 2013, events took place all over the world and we celebrated hundreds of “Happy Heroes” – those people in our communities who do so much to bring happiness to others.
- The 2014 Day of Happiness campaign asked people to share authentic images of what makes them happy to “Reclaim Happiness” back from the fake commercial images of happiness that we are so often bombarded with. Many tens of thousands of people shared images and the social reach was estimated to be over 13 million people globally.
- The 2015 Day of Happiness campaign focused on relationships. We are a social species and we thrive when we’re closely connected to others. But modern society is leaving more and more people feeling disconnected, isolated or lonely. On the day, thousands of people all around the world reached out to make new positive connections with others.
- The theme for International Day of Happiness 2016 was “Climate Action for a Happy Planet”.
- 2017 Theme of the first two days will be The Happy Economy. The start of the conference on Monday 20 March has been consciously chosen to coincide with the 5th anniversary of the official UN International Day of Happiness on that day. After the first two days around The Happy Economy, the theme of the third day will be The Good Economy, and of the last two days The Examined Economy.
Reference
http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Society/international-day-of-happiness.html
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/happiness-day
https://www.cute-calendar.com/event/international-day-of-happiness/20462.html
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/international-day-of-happiness/
http://www.dayofhappiness.net/about/
http://entertainstuff.com/international-day-happiness-2017-sayings-best-slogans-quotes/