It’s National Hugging Day!
Friday, January 21st, 2022 is celebrated as National Hugging Day. Hug friends and loved ones. If you’re alone, wrap your arms around your shoulders and give yourself a great big hug. You deserve it.
The best way to celebrate of course is to hug other people. For some of us, we’ve not been able to hug everyone we wanted to hug, but things are getting better and it’s a great time to make up for lost hugs.
Founder Kevin Zaborney, of Michigan, USA, notices how people are often in low spirits after the winter holidays, so he creates a day to offer positivity and generosity to the world through hugging.[1]
Juan Mann (a pseudonym), a native of Sydney, Australia, gets inspired that life could be a whole lot brighter if people had more human contact. So he begins the ‘Free Hugs’ Campaign where eventually other volunteers joined him in handing out hugs to strangers.[2]
In an effort to promote inspire people to more hugging, Juan Mann writes the Illustrated Guide to Free Hugs. The lighthearted books offers reasons behind hugging, types of hugs, quotes about hugging and much more.[3]
In a study of more than 400 people, results seem to show that people who give and receive hugs, along with other emotional support, may be 30% less likely to get sick from certain contagious illnesses (such as the common cold), in addition to recovering from illness more quickly.[4]
In a stealthy move, the Prime Minister of India goes around then-US-President Donald Trump’s infamously awkward handshake, turning it into a giant bear hug (which is then followed by another awkward handshake).[5]
