Free Hugs

You may not know this but, according to Wikipedia (which I know is not always a reliable source) to day is National Free Hugs Day in the USA.

The Free Hugs Campaign is apparently a social movement involving people who offer hugs to strangers in public places. The movement was started in 2004 by an Australian man known as "Juan Mann". The hugs are meant to be random acts of kindness - selfless acts performed by a person for the sole reason of making others feel better.

When Mann started his Free Hugs campaign, it was initially met with wariness and disturst. Gradually though, more and more people began to accept these random acts of kindness, and other people began to spread the campaign by offering free hugs themselves. In October 2004 Mann was told by police that he would have to stop his campaign due to a lack of public liability insurance! He got together a petition of 10,000 signatures saying that his campaign did not need such insurance, submitted it to the relative authorities and was allowed to continue.

In 2007 Mann made his Illustrated Guide to Free Hugs available as a free download.

The idea of hugging a total stranger is a complete anathema to us repressed Brits. We’re all too happy to keep our heads down and mind our own business. It all sounds a bit American and “happy clappy” to us, all these public displays of affection! Some people even think of holding hands in public as a PDA, and therefore not acceptable.

Maybe we should be a bit like America, and drop our guard a little. Lower our inhibitions, and become a little more open hearted. Even the strange people who hang around Harajuku in Tokyo are continuing the campaign.
If someone’s day can be improved by a hug from a random stranger, then that random stranger has made a difference, albeit a small one, in this world.

Go on – give someone a hug and let’s make America’s National Hug Day into International Hug Day.

You know you want to really!