International Friendship Day, July 30-Show your friends that you care! |29 July 2011

Friendship Day was first marketed by Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark Cards in 1919, and intended to be a day where people celebrated their friendships by sending cards.

In honour of Friendship Day in 1998, Nane Annan, wife of the then UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship at the United Nations.

Many friends acknowledge each other with exchange of gifts and cards on this day. Friendship bands are very popular in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and parts of South America. With the advent of social networking sites, friendship day is also being celebrated online.

To celebrate International Friendship Day, why not do something to show your friends how much you appreciate them. Here are some good ideas:

• Give all your closest friends a call or a hug just to remind them how much they mean to you.
• Invite your closest friends over for a barbeque or sleepover or just to spend some quality time together.
• Host a friendship picnic.
• Send them a ‘Happy Friendship Day’ card.
• Spend the day making a friendship bracelet then swap them at the end of the day.
• Go to the cinema together.
• Make a friendship book with pictures and cut-outs of memories you have shared together.
• Get someone to snap a few pictures of you and your friends enjoying yourselves.

R.C.