Friends day

The Friend's Day is a day proposed to celebrate friendship. It is preceded by the World Friendship Crusade that had been established in Paraguay in 1958, and is celebrated every July 30 under the name Friendship Day. In other Latin American countries it is celebrated on different dates. In Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay the most widespread proposal is that of the day human beings landed on the moon (July 20, 1969).

On April 27, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly finally resolved to invite all member countries to celebrate International Friendship Day on July 30 of each year, following the original proposal promoted by the World Crusade of friendship.

Origin

During the 20th century, there were several initiatives for the celebration of a Friendship Day, in different parts of the world. In the United States and parts of Asia, the first Sunday of August was announced as the day for the delivery of greetings and presents among friends, and similar celebrations were held in different countries of South America and Europe, on different dates. In countries like Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, Friend's Day is deeply rooted in society.

The initiative for the establishment of an internationally recognized Friendship Day had a historical precedent called the World Friendship Crusade, which was a campaign in favor of giving value and enhancing Friendship between Human Beings, in such a way as to promote the Culture of Peace. It was devised by Doctor Ramón Artemio Bracho in Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay in 1958. Based on this idea, July 30 was established as Friendship Day. In Paraguay, the eve of July 30 is used to buy gifts for close friends and couples, parties in bars, clubs or dinner with close friends are very common. The game of the "Invisible Friend" where the names of all the members of a group are distributed on small papers and the one who is chosen (secretly) is given a present on the 30th. This custom is widely practiced in Asunción and other Paraguayan cities in schools and places of work.

United Nations Resolution

On April 27, 2011, during the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly, within the treatment of the Culture of Peace, it was recognized "the relevance and the importance of friendship as a noble and valuable feeling in the lives of human beings around the world" and it is decided to designate International Friendship Day on July 30 of each year, in accordance with the original proposal promoted by the World Crusade of Friendship. The initiative was presented jointly by 43 countries (including Spain ^{[citation required]} and almost all the countries of South America) and unanimously accepted by the General Assembly.

In different countries

In Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay it is celebrated on July 20. In Argentina, the date honors the act carried out by Enrique Ernesto Febbraro who sent 1000 postcards to the whole world the day man reached the Moon. According to the author of the initiative himself in various interviews "he had that idea for a long time", although Febbraro's statements to the press have been confusing as to what really led to it. As he stated in one of them when he heard that the moon landing of the module was a gesture of friendship, from humanity to the universe, it occurred to him that this could be Friendship Day, for this reason he sent a thousand postcards to all parts of the world.

From his office in Lomas de Zamora, in Buenos Aires, he sent a thousand letters to a hundred countries, from which he received 700 responses. He ended up patenting his idea in the intellectual property registry in 1972, then he donated it to the Rotary Club, of which he was a member. A decade after Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, during the military government the Government of the Province of Buenos Aires established through Decree 235/79 the officialization of Friendship Day.

In Bolivia, two dates are celebrated, first on July 23 of each year called "Friendship Day", and the second on September 21, it is a day well remembered among society, since it begins officially spring and in the same way the Day of Love and Youth is celebrated.

In Chile it does not have an official existence. Over the years there have been several attempts to establish it: first Friday of October (by Saint Francis of Assisi), February 14 (as "Lovers and Friendship Day"), etc., but they have not had a lasting echo in the population. The last attempt, started in 2010, seeks to establish it on July 20; although it is being strongly promoted by restaurant chains, it does not present greater acceptance than previous attempts.

Despite the fact that some say that International Friendship Day in Spain is on July 20, no celebration for this reason appears in any Spanish festival calendar.

In Colombia, it has been celebrated on the third Saturday of March since 2012.^{[citation required]} February 14 begins to become more common and welcoming for the celebration of Valentine's Day or "Love's Day" for this reason Friendship Day will no longer be celebrated on this day, likewise according to FENALCO, on September 20, 2014 the celebration of the Day of Love and Friendship, without leaving aside the traditional game of the "secret friend".

In the United States, International Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in August.

The celebrations in Paraguay have their origins in the World Friendship Crusade founded in this country in 1958. Since this year, July 30 has been set as Friendship Day. In 2011, July 30 was declared International Friendship Day by the United Nations.

In Peru, at the initiative of a group of Peruvians who traveled to Argentina in 2004 and saw the Friendship Day celebrations in that country and seeking to promote the Peruvian values of true friendship, it was created at the beginning of April 2009 a social movement in favor of institutionalizing "El Día del Amigo" in Peru. Friend's Day is celebrated in Peru since 2009 on the first Saturday of July from an initiative of the Backus and Johnston brewery company.

In Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and the Dominican Republic, the Day of Love and Friendship is celebrated on February 14.