UNIQUE AND INTERESTING

FRIENDSHIP DAY

The United States Congress, in 1935, proclaimed first Sunday of August as the National Friendship Day.Since then, celebration of National Friendship Day became an annual event. The noble idea of honoring the beautiful relationship of friendship caught on with the people and soon Friendship Day became a hugely popular festival.

Human beings are social creatures and have always valued the importance of friends in their lives.To celebrate this noble feeling it was deemed fit to have a day dedicated to friends and friendship. In the subsequent decades, Friendship Day spread world wide. Friends exchange friendship bands as a sign of an unbreakable bond.

Friendship Day is celebrated in a big way in India. The noble idea of honoring friends and friendship has really caught on with the youth in India and one can see the festival being enthusiastically celebrated by the youth especially, students. At gift stores, customers are willing to spend on items ranging from the traditional friendship bands to friendship packages of stuffed animals, mugs and cards.

This beautiful idea of celebrating Friendship Day was joyfully accepted by several other countries across the world. And today, many countries including India, celebrate the first Sunday of August as Friendship Day every year. Celebrating Friendship Day in a traditional manner, people meet their friends and exchange cards and flowers to honor their friends. Many social and cultural organizations too celebrate the occasion and mark Friendship Day by hosting programs and get-together. Everywhere, people express love for their friends and cherish their presence in life.

There is not much literature on Friendship Day history as we celebrate today.However, there are numerous folktales and several instance in mythological legends that shows that friends and friendship have been valued since the beginning of civilized world.

Following the popularity and success of Friendship Day in US, several other countries adopted the tradition of dedicating a day to friends. Today, Friendship Day is enthusiastically celebrated by several countries across the world including India.

In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie - the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship. The Bible, the primary text of the western civilization, reflects upon friendship as the bond that forms the foundation to human faith, trust and companionship In tune with the spirit of the occasion, people dedicate Friendship Day festival to their best friends. Most choose to celebrate the entire day in the loving company of their dearest friends, recollecting sweet memories of the time spent together and catching up with their lives over a cup of coffee is the idea of ideal Friendship Day celebration for many.

Friends separated by geographical distances, call up their friends to express love and warmth for each other and to wish a "Happy Friendship Day". With more and more people getting hooked to the net, many people also choose to chat with their friends with the help of Internet. Sending SMS and Friendship Day e-cards is another popular way of greetings friends.

Friendship Day celebrations are particularly marked in schools and colleges in India। Euphoria of the day sets in days before the festival as everybody gets excited to wish their best friends in their own special way. Children make Friendship Day Cards or other special gift to thank their friends for their wonderful presence in their life. Exchange of Friendship Bands is the other most prominent feature of Friendship Day celebrations. Friends vie with each other as to who gets the most stylish band or who gets the maximum number of bands.

In several colleges, special programs are also organized to mark the occasion.Most of these programs and events intend to give youth an opportunity to dance and sing with friends and have a good time.

Following their counterparts in the west, youth in India too mark Friendship Day by participating in Friendship Day parties or organizing bashes for their friends. Major crowd for Friendship Day can be seen in discotheques and pubs where people dance with friends on fast pace music and cherish the loving company of their pals. Such parties also give youth a chance to make new friends and widen their friendship circle. At present such bashes are more popular in metros and other big cities, however, youth in small towns too are warming up to the idea of partying on Friendship Day.

Just as in US and several other countries, Friendship Day has been commercialized to a great extent in India. Days before the festival, gift marketers run an extensive campaign to lure the people to buy cards and gifts for their friends.

True friends will not have any reason for their friendship. So it can never be broken when they don't find that reason. A single candle can illuminate an entire room. A true friend lights up an entire lifetime. Friendship is the blend of all relations. A good friend is like a computer; I 'enter' your life, 'save' you in my heart, 'format' your problems, 'shift' you to opportunities and never 'delete' you from my memory. Friendship is like a golden chain which links two hearts.