Celebrating the gift of friendship

Friendship Day is dedicated to the bond of friendship and companionship and is celebrated on the first Sunday of August every year. As we celebrate this year’s Friendship Day, here are a few interesting facts you probably didn’t know about the observance: 

The idea of a World Friendship Day was first proposed on July 30, 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.  

On April 27, 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared July 30 as official International Friendship Day. Friendship Day celebrations occur on different dates in different countries. Most countries, including India, celebrate it on the first Sunday of August.  

In honour 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. 

Some communities observe the day with different customs, by giving it different names and holding it in times unlike that of the actual festival. For example, Women’s Friendship Day is on the third Sunday in August; the third week of May is the Old Friends. The whole of February is designated as the International Friendship Month.