FRIENDSHIP DAY IN INDIA

Friendship Day is a holiday celebrated on the first Sunday in August. For instance, in 2014 it will be celebrated on August 4th. The holiday is a celebration both of personal friendships and of friendship as an ideal.

Anthropologist Charles Darwin, famous for his theories on evolution said this about friendship, "A man's friendships are one of the measures of his worth". Simply put, we're better people because of our friends.

Friendship Day has its origins in the United States. It was introduced by Joyce Hall of Hallmark Cards (a still popular line of greeting cards) and gained official recognition from the United Nations in 1935 through an official Proclamation of Congress. The United Stations became involved in Friendship Day again in 1997, when it proclaimed Winnie The Pooh (Christopher Robin's teddy bear in the A. A. Milne books) the official Ambassador of Friendship. What his exact role as Friendship Ambassador is, is up for grabs.

Friendship Day lost momentum in the United States mid-1900s, over resistance to another retail holiday, but gained a serious foothold in other countries. Perhaps the strongest is in India, where Friendship Day has emerged as a huge social and arguably retail event.

As a social event it is celebrated with parties, from a small gathering of friends to a gathering of "your friends" and "their friends". In other words the celebration can get huge and become, very appropriately, a great way to make more friends.

Social media has embraced the celebration. Friendship day is now celebrated on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more, allowing people to plan bigger parties, confirm attendance, give shout-outs to friends and reach out to far away friends, expanding the party even further.

Parties are not the only expressions of Friendship Day. "Friendship bands", flowers and small gifts, both purchased and hand made, are another key component and a tradition.

Friendship bands (also called "friendship bracelets") are given as a token of friendship but can verge on a symbol of social status since the more friendship bands a person is wearing, the more friends they apparently have.

On the creative and inexpensive side, friendship bands can be home made (and are as a class project in many primary schools). Designs can be elaborate and really pretty. For countless ideas, do an internet search for "making friendship bracelets".

As you've probably observed, restaurants and retailers get in on the action, promoting Friendship Day specials, cards and gifts. Friendship cards are a huge industry but (once again on the budget and entertaining side), something home made could be cuter and more personal.

Friendship Day can get potentially over the top, but that's what holidays are, and good friendships do require maintenance. In fact, as writer Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The best way to have a friend is to be one".