World Smile Day 2017 is celebrated annually on the first Friday of October - that is, October 6, today. Smile Day is by artist Harvey Bell. He came up with and drew a smiley face.

The first emoticon to whom we should be grateful for this holiday was drawn by American artist Harvey Ball. Unremarkable before a certain day The artist, having received an order from the insurance company State Mutual Life Assurance Company of America to create the company's business card, drew the first emoticon - a smiling yellow face.

Today is Smiley Day (Smile Day)

With the development of the Internet, this drawing became iconic and received its own name, emoticon, and subsequently gave work to thousands of designers who today have come up with hundreds of different emoticons.

This was in 1963. And a miracle happened, as always in our lives, unexpectedly and abruptly. After the customers were imbued with the idea embedded in this simple drawing and made it the company logo, they made and distributed smiley face badges to their employees.

The success exceeded all expectations. The company's clients were also amazed by this face. Literally within months, ten thousand of these badges were produced.

And then the smiley started to appear as a logo on clothes, postcards and other places. As is now fashionable to say, the emoticon was a viral success.

World Smile Day began to be celebrated in 1999. This day should be dedicated good mood. Motto of the day: “Do a good deed. Help at least one smile appear.” Now Smile Day is celebrated all over the world with various promotions and flash mobs.

Perhaps all Internet users have used an emoticon at least once when communicating online - it’s either a smiling bright yellow face, or just a figure formed from various punctuation marks, numbers and letters. Due to the fact that human imagination knows no boundaries, emoticons began to express a wide variety of emotions (sadness, love, joy, sadness, etc.), mood and even attitude towards something. All this has become an integral part of our lives and has become commonplace, but few people were interested in the very history of the origin of the first emoticon. And it appeared in 1963 of the twentieth century in the USA. On the occasion of this event they even began to celebrate a special holiday - International Smile Day or World Smile Day, held annually in the first week of October.

The history of International Smile Day

The holiday owes its origin directly to the gifted American painter Harvey Bell. At that time, no one knew his name, and critics simply ignored his work. Who knows what his fate would have been like if, in 1963, an American insurance agency had not approached him with a request to help come up with a bright and memorable logo for their company.

Almost immediately, Harvey suggested they develop what is now unmistakably called the smiley face. The company, without hesitation, released logos with this image and success was not long in coming - very soon bright yellow smiling faces were seen from everywhere. Starting from employee badges to envelope stamps and matchboxes. The artist was more proud and happy than ever for his creation. A little later, already in 1999, Bell introduced a holiday - International Smile Day on October 1, dedicating it to a good mood.

Types of smiles

Learning to smile will not be easy, but the results are worth the effort. A real smile should remain attractive and inspiring, capable of significantly lifting the mood of those around you. This is exactly what Harvey believed all his life.

In the modern world, smiles are usually divided into three styles:

  • Canine style - when smiling, the shape of the lips is very similar to a diamond. Characteristic of this type is the exposure of the fangs. About 31% of the population are carriers.
  • Mixed style - only 2% of the population have this smile. Alas, few people can smile like Marilyn Monroe and Oprah Winfrey.
  • The commissure style is the most common type of smile. According to the latest estimates, about 67% are its owners. We can say that this is an unconscious smile.

How to celebrate the holiday of smiles?

In our company you can buy (emoticons) from us and give them to your friends.

Many enterprises with a close-knit friendly team, kindergartens and schools take organizing and holding celebrations quite seriously International Day smiles. They are preparing a script with their own competitions, prizes, and refreshments. Required condition celebration is the presence of an atmosphere of fun and ease, and there must also be sincere smiles and cheerful laughter. As for the program, the simplest is:

  • Conducting a competition for kids best drawing on the theme of a smiling animal or person. The illustration should be fun and bright. Older guys can come up with a make-up or costume that can make others laugh and bring immediate pleasure to themselves.
  • Adults can organize extraordinary corporate parties, where they will forget that they are adults, at least for one evening.
  • It is no coincidence that everyone wants the last day of a difficult routine week to be easy and fun.

    A smile is an emotional weapon. It charges both the owner and those around him with positivity, uplifting mood and increasing life expectancy. This emotion first appears in people aged 6-8 weeks. When smiling, 53 facial muscles are used. Every year on the first Friday in October, a holiday dedicated to it is celebrated all over the world.

    history of the holiday

    The idea of ​​creating this celebration arose recently, in 1999. Harvey Bally is at the origins of the holiday. The American artist of the mid-20th century painted paintings that were unremarkable and did not arouse heated criticism. In 1963, representatives of an insurance agency asked the artist to create a bright, memorable logo as the company’s business card.

    This is how the well-known to modern man smiley Harvey Bally received less than $50 for his work. Initially, the symbol was displayed on buttons, but seven years later it became widespread. Murray and Bernard Spain of Philadelphia produced T-shirts, mugs, baseball caps and other consumer goods with the image of a laughing face.

    The products gained popularity, bringing the brothers great economic benefit. The smiley was patented in 1971 by French businessman Franklin Laufrani. The latter managed to quickly get rich, because the logo became widespread in 80 countries. Initially, Smile Day was celebrated on October 1, but a few years later the date was changed to the first Friday of the same month.

    World Smile Day is extraordinary Holy holiday, which is noted in first Friday in October. It turns out that you still have time to throw a grand party on World Smile Day 2019!

    The history of the holiday

    Let's look at the recent past - to the middle of the 20th century. One day, representatives of the marketing department of one of the many insurance companies in America set out to acquire their own logo, which would be placed on business cards, leaflets, price lists and other papers. Marketers had a modest budget, so they could not turn to famous artists.

    So fate brought the insurers together with the modest artist Harvey Bell, whose paintings few people had ever heard of. Bell approached the task creatively - and hit the target. He chose a simple but memorable drawing - a cute smiling face that everyone, young and old, knows today. Not particularly counting on great success, the customers accepted the work and said goodbye to the artist. And the insurance company's clients were delighted! Just imagine: on the badge of an employee of the office where you just entered, there is a pretty face with a good-natured smile drawn on it. What else can cause instant affection?

    Soon, cunning entrepreneurs who had nothing to do with this order patented the sign. It’s unpleasant to say, but Bell did not challenge the violation - instead, the artist suggested choosing the day on which the holiday of smiles would be celebrated. He considered that it would be more appropriate to organize World Smile Day in gloomy weather, when it may have been raining outside the window for a long time, and the sun does not even think of peeking out.

    Electronic smiley

    When talking about World Smile Day, we can't help but mention Scott Fahlman, who introduced the computer smile symbol in 1982. It would be interesting to calculate how many times per year an average person uses this funny emoji to decorate their letters.

    World Smile Day 2019

    This year the celebration will take place on 4 October, Friday. It will be celebrated for the 19th time. End working week - perfect time for a party! We offer several ideas:

    • You can take a completely serious approach to smiling on this day: businessmen often announce big discounts to customers who send their application containing emoticons on World Smile Day.
    • On this day it is customary to organize life-affirming events and flash mobs.
    • Start collecting photos of friends and family where they are smiling sincerely.
    • Invite guests by decorating your home with smiley balloons.
    • In the office, next to the calendar or clock, hang a colored drawing - let the cheerful smiley face lift the spirits of everyone from now on - both employees and visitors. It's all very simple to do, but these ideas will bring a lot of joy - see for yourself!

    May World Smile Day 2019 mark the beginning of many good traditions everywhere!

    A smile is a symbol of mood, a reflection inner world each person. With its help you can charm, ask, convince. She helps with any life situations, wins people over. A smile is the engine of human relationships. Without her, the world would truly be gloomy and gray. That is why we demonstrate it openly and whenever possible. In honor of her, they even came up with a special event dedicated to her - International Smile Day.

    The history of the holiday: where it all began

    At the origins stood the then simple, unknown artist Harvey Bell. This man lived in the middle of the 20th century, painted ordinary paintings and was not particularly different from hundreds of the same creative people. But one fine day, workers from an insurance company approached the mediocre craftsman with a request to draw them an interesting logo. Harvey got to work and, without thinking twice, portrayed a funny yellow face with eyes and a smiling mouth. He called his masterpiece “smiley” and handed it over to insurers, receiving only $45 for the work.

    Imagine his surprise when, in the near future, the emoticon became popular all over the world. They began to draw him on postage stamps, T-shirts, dishes and calendars. As for the insurance company, they quickly realized that their new logo was conquering the whole world, and quickly ordered pins and badges for clothing with its image for all employees. They became pioneers and the first people who proudly showed their yellow faces to everyone around them.

    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 one’s 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.

    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 own. 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 International Smile Day

    Of course, everyone decides for themselves where to go on the first Friday of October. But of course, you need to celebrate this event in the office. Firstly, a smile is already its symbol. And, secondly, it is easier and more creative for the whole team to come up with a program for International Smile Day. The scenario may include general drawing, cutting out and pasting yellow faces around the office, singing the children's song “A smile will make everyone brighter” while having a fun tea party.

    Something similar can be done at home, only here there is the opportunity to expand even wider, since this is your own legal territory, and here you have the right to do whatever you want: from baking a cake in the shape of a smile to painting the walls with yellow faces. The main thing is that all family members should be happy. Include not only children, but even grandparents, in the process, dress them up with champagne and sweets and have real fun with all its attributes.

    It's no secret that with its help we can cheer ourselves up. Even when cats are scratching at your soul, a smile increases your energy, increases your vigor, and improves your inner self. emotional condition. It can also relieve stress and calm the shaky nervous system. A smile stabilizes blood pressure and improves the functioning of all systems in the body.

    When we smile, more than 50 muscles are used on the face. A small exercise occurs, which improves the overall tone and condition of the skin in the nasolabial part of the head. This means that we look more beautiful and younger. Also, 15 minutes of laughter have long been equated to one full half-hour workout. So, with its help, we also lose weight, keep our figure in excellent condition and improve our heart function at the same time.

    International Smile Day only comes once a year. But now we have many reasons to celebrate it at every opportunity. After all, smiling and laughter not only create a good mood, but also make us healthier, more beautiful and younger.