World Kindness Day is an international holiday that started in 1998, and celebrated annually on November 13th. It is a movement to promote acts of kindness and provide an opportunity to reflect on the most important principles that bring people together.

The purpose of this day is to “to highlight good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness which binds us.” – quote from the National Today website. Some popular ways to celebrate are helping someone out with chores, asking how someones doing, or just something as simple as giving a compliment.

“A kindness received should be returned with a freer hand.” —Saint Ambrose

“Paying it Forward” is when someone replays your kindness by doing a good deed for someone else, and keeping the trend going. The person who receives the original kindness pays it forward (as opposed to back to the original kindness doer) to a stranger, and the chain continues from there. The act of kindness can be anything from paying for the person behind you in line at a fast food place or in more intense cases, donating a kidney. World Kindness Day would not be where it is today if people weren’t paying the act forward.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou

You never know what anyone may be going through and sometimes even the smallest thing can change their whole day around. An example could be that they might have had a rough day and maybe they don’t have any close friends or family members to rely on, and you gave them a compliment saying “your so pretty” or “I like your jacket”. If this person has low self esteem then just by saying that could make them change the way they view/think about themselves.