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The tradition of celebrating Friendship Day has been prevalent since a very long time. However, you may not find much written literature about the history and origin of Friendship Day. Humans have been friends ever since civilization came into existence. As a social animal, a human being needs companionship and friendship. Thus one can say that friendship has existed even in pre-historic times. To know more about Friendship's Day history, read on.
In the year 1935 the United States Congress announced the first Sunday of August as the National Friendship Day. From then on it has caught up with the rest of the world and today everyone celebrates Friendship's Day with much enthusiasm and joy. A special day dedicated just for friends is something that everyone looks forward to.
The beautiful idea of honoring one of the most pious relations of all, i.e. Friendship, is appreciated by people all over the world. It has assumed the proportion of being celebrated as a festival. Friends all over the world pay tribute to their chums by giving them gifts and other tributes. The best way to celebrate this beautiful day is by spending the entire day with your special pals.
Importance of Friendship in Bible
The Bible, the primary text of the western civilization, reflects upon friendship as the bond that forms the foundation to human faith, trust and companionship. Following verses from the bible aptly portray the importance of friends:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7
“Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13-15
Besides, there are several tales from the Old Testament and the New Testament about the value of friendship and how true friendship is a treasure to unearth. A noticeable point is that, both the versions make a difference between the two broad meanings of friendship- one is a mere acquaintance, the other is a more affectionate relation.
In the Old Testament, Abraham is called the “friend of God” because of the intimacy of his relations. God speaks to Moses face to face “as a man…unto his friend” (Ex 33:11). The romantic friendship of Ruth and Naomi, the devotion of the subordinate Hushai for David, or the mutual relation between David and Jonathan - the Old Testament is replete with these interesting tales of friends and friendship.
In the New Testament, the relationship between Jesus and his disciples clearly depicts how human friendship can constantly grow. From being teacher and disciple, to lord and servant their relationship finally grew to an unparalleled friendship.
Importance of Friendship in Mahabharata
In the famous Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’, Lord Krishna demonstrates the many colors of friendship - affection, romance, brotherhood, protection, guidance, intimacy and even teasing. Friendship is all about these and much more.
There is not much literature on Friendship Day history as we celebrate today. However, there are numerous folktales and several instance in mythological legends that shows that friends and friendship have been valued since the beginning of civilized world. As an intrinsically social creature, men love to make friends to further this process of socialization.
Few Quotes
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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." -- Bernard Meltzer.
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A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway. -- Fr. Jerome Cummings
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Remember, the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends. -- Cindy Lew
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Who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure. -- Jewish Saying
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"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you."
-- Elbert Hubbard
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"Who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure."
-- Jewish saying
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What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. -- Aristotle
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Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.-- Albert Camus
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"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.-- Abraham Lincoln
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"A faithful friend is the medicine of life."
-- Apocrypha
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Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.-- Anonymous
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"Friends are the sunshine of life."
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One who looks for a friend without faults will have none. -- Hasidic Saying
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A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.-- Walter Winchell
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Friends are needed both for joy and for sorrow. -- Samuel Paterson
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Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.-- John Evelyn
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Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.-- Swedish proverb
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A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.-- Anonymous
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Count your age with friends but not with years - Anonymous
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"I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship."
-- Pietro Aretino (1537)
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"Friendship is Love without his wings!"
-- Lord Byron (1806)
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"Friendship makes prosperity more brilliant, and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it."
-- Cicero (44 B.C.)
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"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost"
-- Charles Caleb Colton (1825)
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"One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives."
-- Euripides (408 B.C.)
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Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit."
-- Kahil Gibran.
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"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over."
-- Samuel Johnson
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"There can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom." -- William Penn
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"A friend is a present you give yourself." -- Robert Louis Stevenson
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"You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality."
-- Woodrow Wilson
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A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world. -- Leo Buscaglia
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Advice from your friends in like the weather, some of it is good, some of it is bad.
-Anonymous
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Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen.
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I have lost friends, some by death, others through sheer inability to cross the street.
- Virginia Woolf
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Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends."
- Mary Catherwood
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