About Friendship Day
Friendship Day in India falls on the first Sunday of August, which in 2027 is Sunday, 1 August 2027. Friends tie coloured bands on each other's wrists, send messages and meet up, and the day is strongest in schools and colleges. It is not the same as the United Nations International Day of Friendship on 30 July, and it is not a public holiday.
Nobody in India decided this date. It came in with card shops and school corridors in the 1990s, stuck, and has run on habit ever since. That is worth knowing before you argue with someone who says the real day is 30 July.
Why is Friendship Day in India on the first Sunday of August?
Because India copied the American version of the day, not the United Nations one. The first Sunday of August has been kept as National Friendship Day in the United States since the 1930s, and that is the date Indian shops and colleges picked up.
Hallmark, the card company, says its founder J.C. Hall had the idea in 1919, and that the United States Congress named the first Sunday of August as National Friendship Day in 1935. Other accounts put Hall's idea in 1930 instead. Either way, it began as a way to sell cards in a slow month.
In India there is no start date to point to. No order, no founding group, no first event. What is clear is the order of things: the August Sunday was already normal in Indian schools and colleges long before the United Nations created its own friendship day in 2011. A Sunday also suited students, because nothing had to be skipped for it.
Being a Sunday, it is not a public holiday, and no state marks it as one.
Is Friendship Day on 30 July or the first Sunday of August?
Both dates are real, and they are two different days. The International Day of Friendship is a United Nations observance fixed on 30 July, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 2011. It grew out of UNESCO's culture of peace idea, adopted in 1997, and it is about friendship between countries, peoples and cultures. Governments, schools and UN bodies mark it with talks and events.
The day your friends will actually message you on is the first Sunday of August. Because it is tied to a Sunday and not to a number, the date moves within the first week of August each year. In 2027 it is Sunday, 1 August 2027.
| Date | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| First Sunday of August | India and the United States | Friendship Day. Bands, cards, messages, meet-ups. No official status in India |
| 30 July | United Nations members | International Day of Friendship, proclaimed in 2011, aimed at peace between countries |
| 20 July | Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Spain | Día del Amigo, proposed by Enrique Febbraro after the 1969 Moon landing |
| 14 February | Mexico, Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela | Día del Amor y la Amistad, love and friendship kept on the same day |
Where did the friendship band come from?
Not from India. The woven band grew out of knotted-thread craft from Central America, with Mayan weaving behind it. Young Americans took it up in the 1960s as part of the counter-culture look, and by the 1980s it was the school friendship bracelet, made at sleepovers and summer camps. India got the band in the 1990s along with the date.
One rule travelled with it: you do not take it off. You wear it until the threads give way and it falls off by itself. Some people add a wish to that, and say the wish comes true when the band drops.
In India the band stopped being only thread. Shops sell beaded ones, silicone ones, printed names, small metal charms, matching pairs. Archies, which opened in 1979 and has long held roughly half of India's greeting card market, turned Friendship Day into a shop season, with displays up through July and bands stacked at the counter.
A friendship band is not a rakhi. A rakhi is tied on Raksha Bandhan by a sister on a brother's wrist, with a tilak, sweets and a gift in return, and it carries a promise of protection. A band has none of that. No ritual, no gender rule, no return gift owed, and it goes both ways between any two friends.
What do people do on Friendship Day in India?
Bands get tied first, usually before anything else. Because the day itself is a Sunday, school and college celebrations mostly shift to the Friday or Saturday before, so the tying happens in corridors and classrooms and the Sunday is kept for meeting up.
After that it is simple enough. Friends meet at a cafe or for a film, old batches plan a reunion that half of them miss, and phones fill with long messages and old photos. Bands are cheap, which is part of why the day works for students. Some schools do not allow anything on the wrist with uniform and will ask for them to be taken off, so it is worth checking before you buy twenty.
Offices mostly ignore the day. A quiet message to one work friend fits better than a post to the whole team.
What should I write on Friendship Day?
Write the thing only the two of you know. One specific memory beats a paragraph about what friendship means, and it shows you were thinking of the person and not of your contact list.
Happy Friendship Day. Same bench, last row, four years, and you never once let me take the blame alone. Still the best deal I have had.
Happy Friendship Day to the people who taught me how to survive on one plate of food and three chairs. We are overdue a meet. Somebody pick a Sunday.
Happy Friendship Day. Six thousand kilometres and you still know something is wrong from one voice note. Send me a time and I will call, even if it is odd hours here.
Happy Friendship Day. I have started this message a few times over the years and never sent it. No excuse. I miss talking to you and I would like to fix that.
Happy Friendship Day. This year has been rough on you and I have seen it. Nothing needed from your side. I am around on any day, not only this one.
Happy Friendship Day, you lot. Ninety per cent memes, ten per cent real emergencies. Would not swap any of you.
Happy Friendship Day. You are the reason Mondays are survivable and the only person who knows what actually happened in that meeting.
Happy Friendship Day. Five months in and you already order for me correctly. Glad you turned up.
Happy Friendship Day. We live forty minutes apart and meet once a year, which is silly. Give me two dates this month and I will take one.
Do
- Say what the friendship has been through. "You sat with me through that whole hospital week" carries more than any line about true friends.
- Send the group wish and one personal message. The group one is a greeting. The personal one is the message.
- If you are the one who went quiet, say so straight. Most people are relieved, not annoyed.
Avoid
- Do not forward the same poem to forty contacts. Everyone can tell, including you.
- Do not rank your friends in public. The ones lower down the list read it too.
- Do not send a loud cheerful forward to a friend who has just lost someone. Two plain lines, written only for them.
If you are writing for a leaving batch or a last day at school, Farewell has messages built for that, and Teachers' Day on 5 September falls soon after in the school year.
How to wish someone on Friendship Day
A Friendship Day message works when it names one real thing: the bench you shared, the year someone kept picking up the phone, the trip you still argue about. Send the group message if you want, then send the person a separate one. For a friend you have not spoken to in years, short and honest beats long and flowery.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + recipient language.
When is Friendship Day in 2026 and 2027?
Friendship Day falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 1 day earlier than in 2026.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is Friendship Day in 2027?
Friendship Day 2027 falls on Sunday, 1 August 2027.
What is the difference between Friendship Day and the International Day of Friendship?
They are two separate days. The International Day of Friendship is a United Nations observance on 30 July, proclaimed in 2011, and it is about friendship between countries and peoples. Friendship Day as Indians keep it is the first Sunday of August, an older popular custom with no official status, and that is the day friendship bands are tied.
Is Friendship Day on the same date every year?
No. It follows the first Sunday of August, so the date moves within the first week of the month, anywhere from 1 to 7 August. The day of the week never changes, which is why school celebrations are usually held on the Friday or Saturday before.
Who started Friendship Day in India?
No one person or organisation did, and no Indian government order created it. The date came from the American National Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August, which itself started with the greeting card trade in the 1930s, and it spread in India through card shops, schools and colleges in the 1990s.
How long are you supposed to wear a friendship band?
Until it falls off on its own. The custom that came with the band says you never untie or cut it, you let the threads wear through, and some people say the wish tied into it comes true when it drops.
What should I write to a friend I have not spoken to in years?
Keep it short and say the true thing. Admit the gap in one line without a long apology, name one memory only the two of you have, and offer something specific, like a call this week. Long, dramatic messages after years of silence usually make people uncomfortable.
Is it okay to send a Friendship Day message to a colleague or my boss?
To a colleague you are genuinely friendly with, yes, and a short private message works better than a post to the whole team. To a boss, skip it, or keep it to a line of thanks for something specific, since Friendship Day is not a workplace occasion in India.
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