World Kindness Day is a holiday that’s been celebrated since 1998 and was originally founded by the World Kindness Movement. This holiday is observed on the 13th of November in several different countries all over the world. Some of the countries in which this holiday is recognized not only include the U.S., but also Italy, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, India, Nigeria, Japan, Australia, and Canada.

In 2014, Ukraine became the next country to join in on the celebration of this holiday and new countries are added to the list of countries that observe this holiday regularly. Currently, over 27 countries are engaged in observing the goals of this holiday. What are the goals of this holiday? The goals of this holiday are to promote kindness in all of its forms, as well as a spirit of collaboration between different countries.

The History Of World Kindness Day

In the mid-1990s, the Small Kindness Movement held a conference for participants from all over the world to come by and share their stories about how they started a kindness movement in their very own countries. This conference was considered to a huge success, so a second one was thrown in 1997. When they collected all of the stories of kindness and how kindness movements worked in other countries, they had all of the information they need to start the World Kindness Movement. And that’s exactly what they did and by 1998, the first official conference of the newly minted World Kindness Movement was held in Tokyo, Japan. The first order of business during that conference was to establish a holiday to spread the word about the World Kindness Movement. They then decided to create World Kindness Day and to set it to be observed on November 13th.

The purpose of this holiday is to shine a spotlight on the good deeds in the community and the thread of kindness that binds all of us to one another. Kindness is one of the most important and primal parts of the human soul and is capable of bridging the gaps that divide us by race, religion, gender, location, or politics. Kindness doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, a Republican or a Democrat, or are a male or a female. It just a force that can bring us all together and make the world a better place. And that’s a good reason why more people should take the time to observe World Kindness Day.

Fascinating Facts About Kindness

Since we’re talking about kindness, we thought that it might be a good opportunity to talk about how kindness can impact a person’s life. And we’re talking about not only the people who are on the receiving end of the acts of kindness but also people who are spreading out the kindness. We’ll show you what we mean by listing some of the fascinating facts about kindness that we uncovered while we were writing about World Kindness Day.

• Doing acts of kindness results in a person’s brain releasing endorphins. Endorphins are nature’s painkiller and are responsible for a feeling of well-being.
• Watching the joy caused by the kindness you spread can result in kindness springing up in you as well.
• Studies have shown that performing acts of kindness lowers blood pressure. This is probably due to the release of oxytocin.
• Kindness is also known to stimulate serotonin in the human brain. Serotonin has a variety of benefits including causing a feeling of well-being, calming nerves, and even helping wounds heal faster.
• A 2010 study found that people who are altruistic were happy than people who didn’t give to charity.
• The feeling of wellbeing a person receives when they do something kind for someone else is known as a “helper’s high.”
• People over the age of 55 who volunteer for two or more organizations have over a 40% chance of living longer than someone who doesn’t volunteer at all.
• Another scientific study has suggested that people who are kind on a regular basis have a higher level of endurance than people who aren’t.

Customs, Traditions & Celebrations For World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day is a holiday that’s observed in different countries in different ways. In some places, people organize flash mobs or concerts to bring a smile to people’s faces and to draw attention to this holiday. In other places, people merely take a few extra moments out of their day and try to spread a little bit of kindness among their friends and family or even among complete strangers. No matter how you choose to celebrate this holiday, however, you should use the hashtag #WorldKindnessDay on your social media accounts to continues to spread the word about this day.