国际友情节

国际友情节是什么?这个节日并不像母亲节和情人节那样有名。也并不是一个公众假期，所以那天你仍然需要去上学。所以为什么我们要在每一年的7月30日来庆祝友情？

What is International Friendship Day? It’s not as famous as Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. It’s not a public holiday either, so you still have to go to school. So why do we have a day to celebrate friendship on July 30 each year?

国际友谊节有趣的原因在于它并不像其他的许多庆祝活动，它源于一个商业活动，并转变为更大的象征和意义。情人节，另一方面，是最初的宗教活动，逐渐成为一个爱的庆典，现在更像是一个人们花很多钱在购买贺卡鲜花和巧克力上的机会！

International Friendship Day is interesting because, unlike a lot of other celebrations, it began as a commercial event and turned into something much more symbolic and significant. Valentine’s Day, on the other hand, was originally a religious event that gradually became a celebration of love, and nowadays is mostly a chance for people to spend lots of money on greeting cards, flowers and chocolate!

友谊日开始于美国在20年代和30年代，那时还没有国际化。贺卡公司认为这将是一个很好的方式来销售贺卡，所以他们推广了这个活动。这本来是要在八月二日举行的，因为这是一年中没有任何其他的庆祝活动的时间。

Friendship Day began in the US in the 1920s and 30s. This was before it became ‘international’. Greeting card companies thought it would be a good way to sell greeting cards, so they promoted the event. It was originally meant to be on August 2, since this was a time in the year when there weren’t any other celebrations.

它从来没有真正成为流行。也许人们只喜欢有更深层次的传统的庆祝活动，或者也许它只是太商业化了。不管怎样，我们从来没有真正听过有关友情节直到1958日在巴拉圭。与一次与朋友的晚餐中，Artemio Bracho博士提出了一个对于关于全世界的友情节的构想。这一群朋友成立了世界上的友谊运动，一个促进了所有人类之间友谊的组织。他们游说联合国创建这样的一个节日。最后，在2011日，联合国宣布每年七月三十日为国际友谊日。

It never really became popular. Perhaps people only liked celebrations with a deeper sense of tradition, or maybe it just seemed too commercial. Either way, we never really heard about Friendship Day again until 1958 in Paraguay. During a dinner with friends, Dr. Artemio Bracho proposed the idea of a Friendship Day for the whole world. Together, this group of friends formed the World Friendship Crusade – an organization that promoted the idea of friendship between all human beings. They lobbied the United Nations to create such a day. Finally, in 2011, the UN declared July 30 each year as International Friendship Day.

现在你知道国际友谊的一天是怎么来的，你可能会想：在这一天我们要做什么？它真的不必是一个大问题。根据联合国所提倡的，这个日子都是关于认识到友谊的重要性和价值，作为维护世界和平和改善人民的生活。有的人给朋友们做手工的友谊手镯。你可以给你的一个朋友写一个精美的便条，或者给他们一张贺卡。也许只是在社交媒体上写下关于你朋友的什么。无论你做什么，只需要花一些时间去思考这个世界上友谊的重要性就好。

Now you know how International Friendship Day came about, you might be wondering: what do we do on this day? It really doesn’t have to be a big deal. According to the UN, it’s all about recognizing the importance and value of friendship as a way of maintaining world peace and improving people’s lives. Some people give their friends handmade friendship bracelets. You could simply write a nice note to one of your friends, or give them a greeting card. Maybe just write something nice about your friends on social media. Whatever you do, just take a few moments to think about the importance of friendship in the world.