The idea of creating a website dedicated to the World Days celebrated around the world germinated “one fine morning” in 2004 in the mind of Vincent Tondeux, who, while listening to news flashes on the radio, was struck by the number of announcements of world days he could hear each day.
From Idea to Website
The site you are discovering today is the 3rd version, redesigned in 2019 to better accommodate internet users using their smartphones.
Documentary Research
The documentary research quickly proved to be tedious, and the detection of existing world days was rapidly coupled with the task of verifying the “validity” of these days… one does not self-proclaim a World Day.
This research work allowed for a more precise idea of the promoters of World Days, which can be grouped into different categories:
- The indisputable: UN, UNESCO, and organizations linked to them.
- NGOs: their legitimacy comes from the quality of their action. No one would think of disputing Raoul Follereau’s well-founded World Leprosy Day…
- Churches: World Peace Day was instituted by the Catholic Church in 1979 at the initiative of Pope John Paul II, and it was not until 2001 that the United Nations created their International Day of Peace!
- Associations: World Blind Day, World Deaf Day, etc. are often initiated by associations whose mission is to help them. Unfortunately, they do not always act in a very organized way and, for example, there are different days for the blind days in different countries. One could almost get lost!
- Pressure groups: the term may be amusing, but what about days such as Buy Nothing Day or No Mobile Phone Day?
- The unclassifiable: National Cheese Day and Pasta Day are part of it… along with Laughter Day.
In any case, we did not want to create censorship and have listed the maximum number of days as long as they do not infringe upon human dignity or originate from organizations listed as cults.
An Official “World Day” Label?
Is there an official label? The answer to this question is, quite logically, no. World days have been put in place gradually, thanks to the communication efforts of their promoters, and no official body is responsible for distributing a World Day label.
So, if you feel like it and want to promote a day, anything is possible… know, however, that you will need guts, patience, work, and a good dose of luck to capture the attention of the media, who may seize upon your day to make it known to the greatest number of people.