Days Until International Friendship Day

About International Friendship Day

The United Nations designated July 30 as the International Day of Friendship in 2011, promoting friendship between peoples, countries, and cultures as a way to inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.

It's distinct from a separately, informally celebrated "Friendship Day" observed on the first Sunday of August in the United States and several other countries — a real, sometimes-confused distinction between the UN's fixed-date international observance and an older, unofficial floating-date tradition.

Paraguay is often credited as the country of origin for the older, unofficial early-20th-century Friendship Day tradition later adopted informally in the US and several other countries on a first-Sunday-of-August date distinct from the UN's July 30 designation.

Some countries observe Friendship Day on entirely different dates still, including a separate July 20 tradition popular in parts of South America, illustrating how loosely coordinated the various global "friendship day" traditions actually are.