Today, 13th November is World Kindness Day.

Today, 13th November is World Kindness Day. World Kindness Day is a day that was started in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement. This day is celebrated on November 13th in several countries all over the world. Some of the countries in which this holiday is recognized include the United States, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Nigeria, Japan, Australia and Canada.

During the mid-1990s, the Small Kindness Movement held a conference for participants from all over the world to come and share their stories of the kindness movements they have started in their own countries. The conference was a smashing success, so a second one was held in 1997. What eventually resulted from these conferences was a movement called the World Kindness Movement.

In 1998, the first official conference of the newly formed World Kindness Movement was held in Tokyo, Japan. One of the first orders of business during that conference was the establishment of November 13th each year.

World Kindness Day is celebrated in many different ways all over the world. Some participants organize concerts or flash mobs, others throw charitable events. Some people merely celebrate the day by showing some extra kindness to their loved ones and complete strangers alike.

People worldwide are encouraged to do an act of kindness, whether it’s small or big, random or planned, World Kindness Day’s aim is to promote kindness and get people to do kind things in their everyday lives. It is a day when many people will do a ‘random act of kindness’ or ‘pay it forward’ – a recent phenomena that allows individuals to perform a random and unplanned kind gesture to a friend or stranger, with the idea being that the person who received the kind gesture will go on and do a kind act for someone else. Ideas that you can do include: sending a nice message to a friend that you haven’t spoken to in a while, buying a coffee for the person behind you in line and donating some resources or time to a local charity.

The popularity of random acts of kindness can be said to be due to the current world we live in. It’s not always the kindest place, so by doing one small and kind thing for someone, you can help brighten their day and encourage them to do the same for someone else, spreading happiness and kindness to more people. Also, with the popularity of social media, users can encourage other users to go out and do a random act of kindness, and spread the word about being kind.

I think that World Kindness Day is a great idea, especially in today’s sometimes unkind world, and I will definitely be making an effort to do some acts of kindness not only on the 13th November but every day!