AOF Activities & Events

World Friendship Day (or International Friendship Day) is the first Sunday of August, which of course floats, like the friendship in our lives, and can be any day from Aug 1 through Aug 7.

We humans are social creatures. We recognize the value of friendship, the invisible thread connecting our hearts. In 1935 the US Congress proclaimed World Friendship Day as a time to celebrate this humanist sentiment.

Since then other nations across the world have adopted the noble idea of Friendship Day, honoring it on the first Sunday of August every year, making it a true international celebration.

How can you acknowledge Friendship Day? Call on your friends, invite them for food, embrace them, exchange cards and flowers, gift them with a friendship band or bracelet, or mark the day with programs celebrating human camaraderie.

Note, some groups and nations celebrate Friendship at other times of the year, with different customs and different emphasis. For instance:

• National Friendship Day is the first Sunday in August
• Women's Friendship Day, the third Sunday in August
• International Friendship Month is February
• Old Friends / New Friends Week is the third week of May

What is remarkably constant amid this diversity is idea of the celebration of our connections. Everywhere, people express love for their friends and cherish their presence in life. For more information on this secular holiday, click here.