International Smile Day: history and traditions of the holiday

How the emoticon conquered everyone on the planet

This drawing came to world fame in the 1970s. It was then that the Frenchman Franklin Loufrani decided to bypass the United States. He stated that the idea was his and registered the symbol as a trademark. Of course, the real author didn’t like it, and Harvey Bell also officially legitimized the smiling face with his initials to boot. The man also opened a whole large company dedicated to him. It still exists today and is called the World Smile Corporation. It is headed by the artist’s son, Charles. The organization says that profits go only to paying taxes and charitable activities.

Nowadays, the emoticon has become very popular on the Internet. It is actively inserted into sentences to depict your emotions when writing emails, postcards, and just chatting. Interestingly, Scott Fahlman from the University of Pennsylvania suggested using a colon with a parenthesis as its graphic representation. Although the sign “:)” was unofficially first used by the famous Russian writer Nabokov, few people know about it.

The first holiday in honor of the smiling face was celebrated in 1999, on October 1. International Smile Day has since been celebrated on the first Friday of the second autumn month. In 2014 it is October 3.

Who celebrates the holiday of smiles?

Speaking in the dry language of physiology, a smile is a simple movement of the facial muscles.

Psychologists classify a smile as a person’s disposition to laugh, as a facial expression that conveys positive feelings in the form of pleasure, friendliness, joy, and happiness. However, any capacious definition is not capable of conveying the emotions that accompany or cause a smile.

Try to find a synonym for this word. What comes to mind is a grimace, facial expression, antics. None of these words emphasize the true meaning of a smile.

“Kiss of the soul”, “the sun that drives winter away from the face” - such beautiful epic names were given to people’s smiles. And for a reason.

Only humans are endowed with such a unique ability by nature. And the most interesting thing is that a little person is already born with a smile, and does not learn, as some claim, to smile at his parents, and later at other people.

It turns out that we knew how to smile even before birth, and this is proven by ultrasound examinations of the fetus in the womb. The kids smile at the sun and their mother, the meowing cat and the breeze.

And it’s very interesting what dreams the baby has – the smile of a sleeping baby is especially sweet. But for some reason, as we grow up, we look for reasons to smile, and completely forget that it is inherent at the genetic level. And what is not a reason to smile is the fact that a person has been given life.

But even a smile can forcefully change your mood and even your well-being. Produced by the body through a regular smile, endorphins can relieve pain and improve emotional mood. This is easy to check. You just have to smile for one minute, even through force, and there will be no trace of bad and gloomy thoughts.

Even negatively expressed emotions such as anger or disappointment change their color under the influence of a smile. A way out of a seemingly hopeless situation is found, and the people around you, it turns out, are not so boring or unbearable.

Thanks to a smile, a person finds like-minded people, wins over his interlocutor, and even stops arguments. But the habit of smiling is not common among our compatriots. Common stereotypes will immediately place a person smiling at passers-by among the crazy or mentally retarded.

And people try, upon crossing the threshold of the house, to paste a concerned or business-like expression on their face. Such facial expressions become habitual, and a person does not even want to change it for a second, just to smile at the warm sun and green grass. A person unwittingly provokes constant tension, and even a stressful state.

That’s why we are surrounded by frowning, dissatisfied faces. But frowning is much more difficult for the facial muscles than smiling - 2.5 times less muscles are used to smile.

A smiling person not only looks happier and younger, he puts people at ease and involuntarily prolongs their life.

Thanks to the synthesis of certain hormones under the influence of positive emotions, the functioning of all systems and organs improves, and the body actually rejuvenates.

So why look for a reason to smile when you can make your life much happier just by smiling. And it is not surprising that such a kind and bright holiday, the Day of Smiles, appeared.

International Smile Day: what to give?

If you want to congratulate your loved ones on this holiday, then you need to prepare a thematic gift too. If it's International Smiley Face Day, then the gift must have everyone's favorite face on it. For example, in stores you can buy a calendar dedicated to this symbol. Every day you paste emoticons depicting your mood. This creates an emotional picture of your entire year.

You can also give a toaster that produces crispy bread with a smile on it. Another thematic gift will be a set of underwear, each piece of which has a different mood depicted on it. Thanks to him, it is possible to wear a set every day depending on your state of mind. A good solution would be a set of smiley pillows, sunny smiling slippers and bed linen with a pattern of smiles. All this can be bought in the store, fortunately these days the range is wide. With such gifts, International Smile Day will be fun and cool.

How to celebrate the most smiling day?

There are simply many ideas for celebrating Smile Day. Already in the first year of the holiday, an incredible number of toys, postcards, souvenirs with the image of a smiley face and other funny characters appeared that people with smiles on their faces could give to each other. Proceeds from such sales are necessarily directed to charitable purposes.

Prepare a script for a holiday in kindergarten, invite the kids to draw a funny animal or person with a smile on their face. Older kids can make funny masks and even costumes that will make you laugh.

For schoolchildren, offer a mini-conference where young speakers can talk about sociological and psychological research related to smiling.

Organize an extraordinary corporate event among your work colleagues in an informal setting. Interesting photos and fun competitions will be useful for a fun time.

Don't forget to smile on this good day to your family, friends and even management at work. Start the day with a smile. Smiling at your reflection in the mirror, you will feel how the world will sparkle with bright colors and sound with new melodies.

Classification and types of smiles

There is an opinion: people smile not with their lips, but with their eyes. This is the absolute truth. Proof of this is the variety of smiles that exist in the world today and are used at different times in certain situations. Even the great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy described hundreds of smiles of various types in his own novels. There are actually a lot of them: sincere, enthusiastic, ironic, cold, cynical, evil grin, smirk, vengeful, false, etc.

Modern classification involves dividing smiles into three types:

• Spike type - it is used unconsciously by more than half of the world's population (60%).
• This figure is two times less for the canine type.
• Mixed type - it is unlikely that any of you will be lucky enough to learn to smile like Julia Roberts or Marilyn Monroe. The number of such people is about 2% of the total mass of earthlings.

If we talk about the ability to raise the corners of the lips upward among representatives of certain peoples and nationalities, then a significant difference has been noticed between Italian and Arab, Polish and Eskimo smiles. Let's say, for example, Russian people smile from mouth to ear, and black African natives use their whole body in the process of smiling.

Finally, many smiles are captured on the canvases of famous artists. The most striking example is “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Da Vinci. To this day, she fascinates us with her secret living in the corners of her lips...

Smile with joy

Today there are many ways to find inner balance: using various technologies of self-hypnosis (remember the words from the film “In Love of Your Own Will”: “I am calm! I am surprisingly calm ...”). Many techniques teach how not to react to the irritating influence of the external environment, how to not allow problems inside yourself, how to learn to behave in such a way that no one can manipulate you, etc. Everything, in fact, does not lead to real joy in life. Rather, it kills sensitivity, turning it into an insensitive dummy that does not perceive blows and injections. Joy is a consequence of spiritual purity. This seemingly primitive idea lies at the basis of human joy. He who bears no grudge against his neighbor rejoices. Evil stored in the heart kills joy. In order to avoid this, you need to be able to forgive, because forgiveness is nothing more than removing the painful burden of hatred from the soul. Joy is never personal. It is always shared with someone. Pay attention to your neighbors and bestow your good mood on them. When you see their smiles, your joy will be even fuller.

The story about the smiley

World Smile Day owes its appearance to a man named Harvey Ball . Ball was born in Worcester (USA) and became an artist's student while still a schoolboy, and also studied art at the city museum. After the end of World War II, Ball began working for an advertising agency and then founded his own.

In 1963, the insurance company State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America approached him with a request to come up with a logo for them that would be memorable and become the company’s calling card. Ball proposed his own version and developed a logo that the whole world knows today - a smiley face. He received $45 for his work. The emoticon first appeared on badges that insurance company employees were required to wear. The badge was supposed to remind them to smile at the client.

The logo immediately gained popularity. But the emoticon became even more famous when the slogan “Have a happy day” was invented for it, which translates as wishing a good day. The success was truly stunning. The image appeared everywhere, right down to matchboxes. It is not difficult to imagine Ball's happiness: after all, he completely unexpectedly invented something that survives him. But as the artist admitted, he came up with the logo in just 10 minutes.

By the way, the surprise and simplicity of this invention was wonderfully played out in Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump” about a man who simply lived his life and every day, helped others, moved forward and was happy. If you watched this film, you will probably remember the episode where Forrest, who was running, used his T-shirt as a towel to wipe the dirt from his face, and thus left a smiley face on it.

pexels.com/Julia Avamotive

Interesting Facts

• Surveys conducted among various segments of the population have shown that people find a smiling woman much more attractive than a woman wearing makeup. This is due to the fact that a smile tightens the face, visually rejuvenating it and making it smoother and more attractive.
• Scientists have repeatedly proven that smiling is contagious, just like yawning. A person in a bad mood, seeing his interlocutor smiling, tends to smile. And unconsciously.
• It turns out that different types of smiles have different effects on others. Florida scientists have proven that the more modest a specialist’s smile, the more competent his clients and partners consider him. A wide smile, unfortunately, does not inspire professional confidence.
• In addition to joy, a smile can be ironic, cynical and even evil and dangerous. This emotion carries a huge range of different feelings. By the way, there are three types of smiles: spike, fang, mixed. A mixed smile is the rarest.

Traditions

Why does Smile Day fall on October 2 this year? The holiday is celebrated in all countries of the world on the first Friday of this autumn month. This day was not chosen by chance:

• Friday is the day that mostly ends the work week, and people have a two-day weekend.
• This helps to lift the mood and allows a person to relax and have fun.

Sad woman lies on fallen leaves: Pixabay
Why was October chosen? In this autumn month, people often feel blues, depression and nervousness; some find themselves captive to depression. Congratulations on Smile Day, gifts with the appropriate attributes (emoticon) even against the will of people cause a smile, which, as scientists have proven, improves mood and creates a good mood.

How do they celebrate this holiday in different countries of the world and how do they congratulate each other on Smile Day? So:

• People take funny photos.
• They are supplemented with emoticons.
• Selfies are shared on social networks.

This helps improve the mood of other Internet users and puts a smile on people’s faces.

Also, the modern industry offers a huge variety of souvenirs dedicated to this holiday. To improve the mood of others, people give gifts with smiling faces. Postcards with a smile and wishes of happiness, kindness and good mood are sent to loved ones, relatives, friends and just acquaintances.

This day is also celebrated in educational institutions: schools, kindergartens, colleges, universities. Here for students:

• hold competitions for the most cheerful drawing with smiling faces;
• organize seminars dedicated to smiles;
• They place boards with wishes at the entrances, on which anyone can give pleasant words to others. Entries are made on special pieces of paper with smiley faces.

People also organize flash mobs, entertainment events, and implement their own life-affirming projects. For example, the famous master of photography Jay Weinstein travels around the world and takes portraits of people. He is implementing an art project: he places side by side photographs of the same person with and without a smile. When looking at portraits, you understand how optimism decorates and transforms a person.

Many companies provide partners with incredible discounts if applications submitted on the first Friday of October include a cheerful smiley.

The editors congratulate everyone on this joyful holiday and wish to always remain in a good mood, maintain optimism and good spirits!