“If You’re Happy and you Know it Clap Your Hands!”
World Happiness Day
Most of us are familiar with the children’s song that begins, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”! International World Happiness Day – and there really is such a day - invites us to do just that, to celebrate happiness and to strive to create happiness across the world and locally where our own feet are!
International World Happiness Day, established by the United Nations in 2013, is celebrated each March 20th. The intent of the day is a reminder of the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. It is a day to highlight happiness as a universal human goal and is closely associated with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals which seek to end human poverty, to reduce inequality and to protect the planet.
The past 3 years have been hard and discouraging for many. Yet, the World Happiness Report, 2022 reminds us that despite such dark times there are also many current examples of profound human kindness and increased social support on which we are invited to reflect .[1]
Attitudes also count in significant ways. It is no coincidence that with the release of the World Happiness Report each year, the Nordic countries surpass all others. “Why”? There are obvious factors such as the smallness of each of these nations but there is also more. Whether democracy, political rights, social networks, fair distribution of resources, gender equality, and other such factors are considered, the Nordic countries are always found at the top of the happiness lists!
In a business report, Fanny Aberg, of the executive company “Nordic Minds” says, in the Nordic countries, “family always comes first”. It is primarily a question of work/life balance. She continues “working hours are based on when you want to spend time with your family. It’s perfectly normal to turn off your computer at 4pm and pick up the children from daycare, spend the afternoon with them and eat dinner together.” Life in the workplace is marked by listening to all employees and informality and ambience matters in the workplace. Meetings include the Swedish tradition of “fika”; the sharing of coffee and pastries as friends.[2] Linked to this is the Scandinavian “Hygge (pronounced hooga) lifestyle. Hygge, is translated as “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality”.[3] Home life is enjoyed, dressed down in comfortable clothes, enjoying conversation and warmth together and eating comfort food. Perhaps we have much to learn from these countries! Happiness in Scandinavia is likely to be defined by a sense of simple contentment.
So, let’s celebrate this World Happiness Day – reflecting on our lifestyles, being grateful for and sharing our blessings with others. Let’s reach out to someone on this day to bring happiness to their life.
-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ
[1] World Happiness Report, 2022 see: worldhappinessreport/ed/2022
[2] See:www.businessinsider.com/world-happiness-report-nordic-countries-why-work-culture-lifestyle;better-2022-4
[3] Merriam Webster Dictionary