friendship day 2023 essay

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Sharing the human spirit through friendship

Our world faces many challenges, crises and forces of division — such as poverty, violence, and human rights abuses — among many others — that undermine peace, security, development and social harmony among the world's peoples.

To confront those crises and challenges, their root causes must be addressed by promoting and defending a shared spirit of human solidarity that takes many forms — the simplest of which is friendship.

Through friendship — by accumulating bonds of camaraderie and developing strong ties of trust — we can contribute to the fundamental shifts that are urgently needed to achieve lasting stability, weave a safety net that will protect us all, and generate passion for a better world where all are united for the greater good.

The International Day of Friendship was  proclaimed  in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.

The resolution places emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.

To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.

The International Day of Friendship is an initiative that follows on the proposal made by UNESCO defining the Culture of Peace as a set of values, attitudes and behaviours that reject violence and endeavour to prevent conflicts by addressing their root causes with a view to solving problems. It was then adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1997.

quote goes here… Secretary-General's Message

Actions to Promote a Culture of Peace

• foster a culture of peace through education;
• promote sustainable economic and social development;
• promote respect for all human rights;
• ensure equality between women and men;
• foster democratic participation;
• advance understanding, tolerance and solidarity;
• support participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge;
• promote international peace and security.

BTS 💜 show the power of love and kindness

Essential Readings

• International Day of Friendship (General Assembly resolution)
• Culture of Peace  (General Assembly resolution)
• Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace  
• International Day of Peace (General Assembly resolution)
• Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief
• UNESCO : Culture of Peace and Non-violence
• UNICEF : Friendship: Something to Remember

Related Observances

• World Day of Social Justice 
• International Day of Happiness  
• International Day of Conscience
• International Day of Families  
• International Day of Living Together in Peace
• World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
• International Day of Peace
• International Day for Tolerance   
• International Human Solidarity Day

Why do we mark International Days?

International days and weeks are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool. We also mark other UN observances .

Friendship Day 2023: Date, Theme, Significance And Quotes

Happy friendship day 2023: friends are the pillars of support, the shoulders to lean on, and the partners in crime who make every moment memorable..

Happy Friendship Day: Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August.

Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August. This year, the day falls on August 6. The day serves as a reminder to acknowledge the relationships that lighten up our burden in so many ways. It is time to embrace the spirit of camaraderie and express gratitude to our friends and let them know how much they mean to us.

 Friendship Day 2023 Theme

The theme for Friendship Day 2023 is "Sharing the Human Spirit through Friendship." This theme stresses upon the power of friendship to connect people from all corners of the world.

As per the official website of the United Nations , “Our world faces many challenges, crises and forces of division — such as poverty, violence, and human rights abuses — among many others — that undermine peace, security, development and social harmony among the world's peoples. To confront those crises and challenges, their root causes must be addressed by promoting and defending a shared spirit of human solidarity that takes many forms — the simplest of which is friendship.”

Significance: 

Friends are the pillars of support, the shoulders to lean on, and the partners in crime who make every moment memorable. They are the ones who stick by us through thick and thin, offering a listening ear and a helping hand. The day is marked to celebrate this special bond. 

Friendship Day 2023 Wishes, Messages, Quotes and WhatsApp SMS to share with your loved ones: 

— A friend is a treasure that fills life with smiles.

— Being your friend has been an adventurous ride because I never know what you plan on doing next. So, Happy Friendship Day to you crazy person.

— A true friend is someone, who will help you in every sticky situation, but you help me only after you've had a hearty laugh. So, I guess that makes you a one-of-a-kind friend.

— They say opposites attract; I guess that's why you and I are as thick as thieves. Happy Friendship Day to my pole apart friend.

– Happy Friendship Day to the friend with whom I can grow old and laugh till my dentures fall out.

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• Lifestyle /

International Friendship Day 2023: Date, history, significance & how to celebrate occasion

Updated July 30th, 2023 at 17:55 IST

July 30 marks International Friendship Day. Announced by UN General Assembly, it honours meaningful connections that inspire global unity and peace.

Advertisement.

To mark the significance of friendship in our lives, every year, July 30 is celebrated as International Friendship Day. The occasion acknowledges that our friends make our lives better. The day celebrates and cherishes the meaningful friendships in our lives and recognises how healthy relationships are a mainstay in our lives.

3 things you need to know

• International Friendship Day, July 30, celebrates bonds and promotes global unity, understanding and meaningful connections.
• The occasion was recognised by the United Nations in 2011.
• A week before Friendship Day, the world will mark International Friendship Day.

International Friendship Day and Friendship Day: Different dates, same spirit

Despite being proclaimed by the United Nations, not all countries celebrate International Friendship Day on July 30. A few nations like India, Bangladesh, UAE, Malaysia, and the US observe Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August. So, for them, this year, Friendship Day will fall on August 6.

(Friendship Day is celebrated a week later to International Friendship Day | Image: Shutterstock)

International Friendship Day 2023: Know the History of the occasion

It was back in 2011 that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) recognised International Friendship Day. The day was announced keeping in mind the idea that friendship between people, nations and cultures can be an inspiration to build bridges between communities.

The resolution emphasises encouraging young people to be future leaders in community activities, which promotes international understanding and respect for diversity, by involving different cultures.

International Friendship Day 2023: Know the Significance of the occasion

As per the United Nations, the world continues to struggle with issues like human rights abuses, poverty and others that challenge security, development, social harmony and peace among the people. International Friendship Day aims to establish strong ties of trust to make sure that together, we eradicate all those factors that threaten a peaceful future.

This initiative is also significant as it works on the proposal adopted by UNESCO. The proposal defines the culture of peace as a set of values, behaviours, and attitudes so that countries reject violence and prevent conflicts by addressing the root causes.

Friendship plays a vital role in shaping societies and improving the world. It transcends borders, cultures and ideologies. Through friendship, we learn to appreciate diversity and embrace different perspectives. It is a bond that can stand the test of time and adversity.

International Friendship Day 2023: How to celebrate the occasion

Friendship Day is celebrated worldwide with great enthusiasm. People exchange gifts and cards as tokens of love to express their appreciation for their friends. Social media platforms light up with heartwarming messages and pictures of friends enjoying each other's company.

(Friendship Day is celebrated worldwide with great enthusiasm | Image: Shutterstock)

International Friendship Day reminds us of the beautiful bond that enriches our lives and brings people together. On this day, let’s reach out to our friends, express our gratitude and strengthen the ties that make the world a better place.

Published July 30th, 2023 at 17:55 IST

The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

International friendship day 2023: history, significance and everything you need to know.

Celebrations of International Friendship Day vary across cultures and regions. People may engage in community gatherings, share stories of their friendships, and exchange thoughtful gifts. Some participate in activities that promote teamwork and cooperation, while others use social media to express gratitude for their friends.

The Genesis of International Friendship Day:

United nations' recognition:, significance of international friendship day:, read more news on.

(Catch all the US News , UK News , Canada News , International Breaking News Events, and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

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• Trending Events /

International Friendship Day 2023: Theme, History, Significance

• Updated on  
• Jul 27, 2023

Few of our relationships mature over time and have a rock-solid foundation, making it difficult to end them. One of the relationships like that is friendship. No matter your age or the stage of life you are in, let’s be honest, you can’t survive without your friends. Friends who, no matter what time of night it is, are always there to support you. Friends that are constantly in the lead are always there to lift your spirits when there are setbacks, victorious moments in your life, or on any other occasion. On July 30, people throughout the world observe International Friendship Day to recognise the true value of friendship, foster relationships between diverse cultures and help people put aside their differences in order to live in a better society. Continue reading to know more about this wonderful event.

Also Read: How to Make Friends When Studying Abroad?

Table of Contents

• 1 Theme of International Friendship Day 2023
• 2 History of International Friendship Day
• 3 Significance of this Day
• 4 Celebrations Around the World
• 5 International Friendship Day Celebrations

Theme of International Friendship Day 2023

Every year International Friendship Day is celebrated with a new theme. This year the theme is, ‘Sharing the human spirit through friendship”. This theme highlights the unique quality of friendship in which you may win others over by expressing feelings of joy and peace. 

Also Read: International Moon Day 2023

History of International Friendship Day

The International Day of Friendship was established by the UN in 2011 with the goal of encouraging peace efforts and bridging cultural gaps via friendship between peoples, nations, and cultures. For the day, the UN aimed to mobilise young people—future leaders—in local events that celebrate many cultures, foster intercultural understanding and honour diversity. The World Friendship Crusade, an international civil organisation that works to promote peaceful culture through friendship, suggested the first World Friendship Day in 1958 before the U.N. officially recognised it. 

Also Read: World Youth Skills Day 2023

Significance of this Day

This day, according to the UN, may support the spread of societal harmony and peace. Since the world already faces ongoing difficulties, conflicts, and forces of division, all such things threaten harmony and peace. International friendship can contribute to the fundamental changes that are urgently required to achieve long-term stability, create a safety net that will protect us all, and ignite the passion for a better world where everyone works together for the common good. This day can help build strong bonds of trust and camaraderie.   

Also Read: World Emoji Day 2023

Celebrations Around the World

Around the world, this day is observed on various dates with various themes.

Also Read: Importance of Friendship Speech

International Friendship Day Celebrations

The UN urges nations, organisations, and neighbourhood associations to host gatherings, activities, and projects that advance friendship, understanding, and reconciliation to commemorate the International Day of Friendship.

People give flowers, send cards, and exchange tiny tokens of affection as a friendship band. Today’s youth celebrate by getting together with their friends, taking Instagram-worthy images, sharing them online, posting tales, and much more. Celebrate in your own style and show your buddies how much you value their friendship.

Ans: Different countries observe International Friendship Day at different times and days. It is observed in India on the first Sunday in August.

Ans: The theme of 2023 for International Friendship Day is, ‘Sharing the human spirit through friendship.’

Despite the fact that the United Nations has designated July 30 as International Friendship Day, India continues to observe this unique day every year on the first Sunday of August. This year, it falls on August 7.

This was all about the International Friendship Day. Follow Leverage Edu for more informative and engaging content on trending events . 

Nidhi Mishra

Nidhi Mishra is a seasoned senior content writer with more than eight years of diverse experience in the field of education. Her varied career encompasses work in teaching, training, counselling, developing curriculum, and content creation. Nidhi has a solid background in education and has developed her abilities to meet the diverse needs of students, especially students who want to study abroad. Throughout her career, Nidhi has been an invaluable resource to students with their test-taking efforts, offering thorough career assistance and insightful advice on how to navigate the complexity of the system of education. Her speciality is creating interesting and educational content that is specifically designed to fulfil the needs of students who want to pursue higher education abroad. Together with her wonderful writing skills, Nidhi's love of education has allowed her to produce content that has a lasting impression on readers, educators, and students alike. She is committed to providing high-quality, timely, and insightful content because she believes that education can empower people.

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• Friendship Day

Introduction

Friendship is a selfless bond between two people. Having a friend you can trust with eyes closed is God's blessing. Friendship is a devoted relation, where both get the same love, care, and priority from each other. At an early age, people come in contact with various members of the public, and they make many friends. But as time flows, there is hardly one or two true friends who stay beside you.

Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August every year. There is indeed a story behind dedicating this day to Friendship. It is said that once the US government had killed a person, who had a friend who committed suicide in the sorrow of his friend's death. Honouring the depth of their Friendship, this day was named as Friendship day in America in 1935 and thus began the celebration of Friendship Day. 

Today, Friendship Day is celebrated with enthusiasm all over the world. There is hardly anyone who does not have a friend or who does not know the importance of friendship. We all have friends in life and we like to spend time with friends.

Nowadays if we see, in this modern age we are moving forward. Today, it is difficult to find a true friend, and if a true friend is found, life becomes very happy. We need friends all the time, and if a true friend is with us, then the thing is different. For any need, we can take help from friends and live the best life.

We are moving forward in this modern era. People who cannot give time to their friends, Friendship Day motivates all those people to meet their friends. If there is no friendship between the two, no relationship can stay long.  Friendship is only possible when both people have the same interests and feelings. Friendship is the basis of every relationship. Friendship day is mainly a day to celebrate the day of togetherness and the bond between true friends. This Friendship day brings us closer to our friends and brings lots of happiness in life.

Celebration

On the occasion of Friendship Day, many friends congratulate their friends by giving them flowers and cards and hanging out with their friends. They happily embrace or cherish this moment, by hugging each other. Many times friends keep a small party at their home or friends house on the occasion of this friendship day. They seek just one chance to meet their friends on this day.

On this day, each friend gives a friendship band to another friend. Friendship day has great importance in life. On the other hand, it is not necessary to celebrate friendship day with great pomp and show every time. Some relation is truly precious itself, So one doesn't need to organise a grand party behind it.

Sharing a true bond and loyalty in friendship with each other may be a grand Celebration itself. Enrich your friendship with genuine feeling and joy on friendship day.

On friendship day, spending some time with friends and sharing some warm feelings is also part of the Celebration. Relive life with some faithful friends who will never leave you alone.

Importance of Friendship

During childhood, Friendships are intense, so the memories always remain in the heart. Friendship is a relationship that a person chooses on his own. During childhood, many Friendships are unintentional. The bonds are formed generally by playing together. Nowadays there is less number of people with whom one can share everything. After a day's work or a busy day, a person needs someone with whom they can relax and throw a red ball to the trouble of life. Relation of Friendship is one of them

From childhood to the current age, many people come and go in life. But there is only one or two with whom one can share an actual bond. Whom people can trust in their worst time. A true friend will always guide a person in their worst and best situation. Having such a true friend is essential in a person's life.

Some friends last forever. However, some continue to remain friends for a lifetime through good and bad times. There are few such friends who maintain true Friendship throughout life. Therefore, you should be cautious while making friends.

A person can share his happiness and sorrows and all kinds of emotions with a friend. Friendship can come in any discipline of life and anyone can be a friend like a father can be a friend of his daughter. In the same way, a mother-son can be a friend, a husband-wife can be a friend. It is not necessary that a person should be friends only with the same age groups.

True Friendship is also seen with animals, where there is honesty and loyalty, such friends prove very helpful for us. True Friendship always shows the right path to the person. Friends are the second priority of a person after the family. One spends every good and bad moment with a friend. The habits a person carries in life can be the result of Friendship.

Man is a social animal and cannot live alone and needs friends to survive. A person should always choose his friends carefully. A true friend should not be ridiculed or lost for any reason. Conversely, you should stay away from friends who take advantage of you.

They will never come to your help at your bad times and will keep you in trouble from time to time, hence Friendship is very important in our life. However, if friends are bad, they can also be dangerous. This one day reminds us of a few moments spent with our friends. Actually, Friendship day plays an important role in our life. If you have a true friend, then in life, you can actually go ahead in every field.

On Friendship day many social and cultural organisations also celebrate Friendship day and give congratulations. Friendship day is a symbol of the love of friends. However, pets are also considered as good friends for life, being a part of humans they are the best friends for life to understand our all emotions throughout. 

There is a saying “A friend in need is a friend indeed” and Friendship Day has great importance to awaken the feeling or need of that friend. Having a loyal friend is a royal feeling. A true friend will never lose loyalty in any situation. In today's era, people do not find a proper person to share everything about their lives. Sometimes there is something that can not be shared with family or any relatives.

We should forget everything and congratulate our friends on Friendship Day, meet with them, spend some moments with them, dine with them, and hang out in joy with them because our friends are the best. In fact, friends are very important to us. Whenever we feel lonely in life, a friend removes our loneliness and brings a smile to our face.

In that case, a friend can play the best role. Because some people lose their life due to depression or loneliness as they can't share what is going on. From now on, share the best friendship with your friend. Like every time they remind you of the best friend they have ever had.

Only a friend helps to overcome our problems, stress and loneliness. Sometimes many relatives do not help, but a true friend helps us. celebrate friendship day and give congratulations. Friendship day is a symbol of the love of friends. However, pets are also considered as good friends for life, being a part of humans, they are the best friends for life to understand our all emotions throughout.

FAQs on Friendship Day

1. What is true friendship?

Friendship is something that we can not buy with money. This relation can only be made between two or more people. It does not mean that people of the same ages can only be good friends. One can also relate like a friend with their mom, dad, sister, brother, or anyone they want. But one who guides you in every situation, whether it is good or bad, is your true friend's incense.

2. Why is friendship important?

We all are human, so we are bound with emotions. We need someone who holds our hand and shares all the emotions in every situation. Every person needs a loyal friend for that. Who will guide us to our ultimate goal? Who helps to relive our life every time. A true friend always leads us to success. For this kind of guidance in good and bad situations, sharing love and taking care, a friend is essential in everyone's life.

3. What is Dunbar's Number?

The meaning of friendship is different for all of us. Every person has their definition of friendship. In between us, there are lots of people who have many friends in their life, on the other hand, there are also some people who have only one or two. Studies show that a person can share a casual friendship with upto  150 people at a time. According to the theory, the brain can only keep counting so many details regarding details like name, face, etc. It is estimated that your cognitive limit cannot exceed 150 relations at a time. This number is known as Dunbar's Number.

4. Why is Friendship Day celebrated?

Friendship is a relationship that stays for a lifetime. From childhood to old age, many friends come and go. There is luckily only one or two who stay beside me for a lifetime. Give tribute to genuine friendship; We celebrate Friendship day.  Also, friendship day is essential for today's kids who have just started making new friends and exploring the world. Nowadays, friendship day is celebrated in educational institutes to understand the importance of friendship day to kids or young people.

5. From where a student can find the best friendship day essay?

In that case, the student can find their answer from any online learning platform. But Vedantu is the best among them. Vedantu is an online learning platform. From where students can take help in their studies. They give various courses, study material, NCERT, or any entrance exam-related help. Vedantu  is the best platform for CBSE, ICSE students to help their studies. In the case of an Essay about friendship day or any topic, students can go through the educational blogs given on the website of Vedantu.

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International Friendship Day 2023: Everything You Need to Know

• By Vidita Joshi
• December 26, 2023
• Morbi leo risus

Friendship is a unique connection between people built on mutual respect, understanding, and care. Friends encourage and support one another through thick and thin, sharing joys and hardships. They act as pillars of strength in difficult times and mirrors that reflect our authentic selves.

Significance

International Friendship Day 2023 is a joyous celebration of the strength and beauty of friendships worldwide. It's a time to cherish and acknowledge the special people who bring us joy, understanding, and support. On this day, friends come together to express gratitude and strengthen their bonds, creating lasting memories and moments of laughter. Let's embrace the spirit of true friendship and spread love and kindness to make this day an unforgettable and heartwarming occasion.

ALSO READ - Ways to Bond with Your Family

How is Friendship Day Celebrated?

To honor the vital role that friends play in our lives and to make this bond stronger, people exchange gifts, share heartfelt messages, and spend time with their favorite people together. Many people use social media as a platform to showcase their affection for their friends using pictures and messages. 

Although friendship is all about relationships with friends, some people in our lives are not only our constants but are as good as any friend or even more. We call them family.

Friendship with Mom and Dad

Friendship isn't just about friends our age; it is also about the special bond between parents and children. As kids grow up and become independent, many develop a friendly relationship with their mothers and fathers or sometimes both. It is all about the communication and understanding encouraged by the parents that set the foundation of this relationship. This not only allows kids with a mindful thought process but they also feel supported while seeking advice. This also makes them feel loved and supported as they are filled with self-esteem.

Best Friends like Siblings

Some friendships become so close that best friends feel like siblings. Special bonds such as these often begin during childhood and last through all of life's ups and downs. Best friends who are like siblings share a bond that feels like being part of the same family tree . They laugh, have fun, and support each other emotionally. They know each other well and accept each other just as they are.

Friendship Day is a special time to celebrate the phenomenal relationships that bring love and understanding into our lives. Whether with peers, parents, or best friends who make us feel like siblings; these connections are precious. Let's take a moment to cherish and thank this special bond called friendship that makes us better people with every passing day. Let's continue to nurture true friendship because it is a wonderful gift that brings happiness and meaning to our lives.

To read more family-related content, visit Kintree or download our  family tree maker app - Kintree which is available on Playstore and Appstore .

Vidita Joshi

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Essay on Friendship Day 204 | Friendship Day Essay

Table of Contents

Friendship Day: Celebrating the Gift of True Companionship

Introduction:.

Friendship is one of the most cherished and meaningful relationships in human life. It is a bond that goes beyond blood ties and connects souls with love, understanding, and trust. To honor this beautiful connection, Friendship Day is celebrated worldwide as a special day to express gratitude and love toward our friends. This essay explores the significance of Friendship Day , its celebration, and the importance of true friendships.

When it is celebrated:

Friendship Day is observed on different dates around the world. In some countries, it falls on the first Sunday of August, while others celebrate it on different days throughout the year.  INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP DAY celebrated on July 30, 2023. In India friendship day will be celebrated on 6 august.

Regardless of the date, the essence of Friendship Day remains the same – to celebrate the spirit of friendship.

Celebration:

Friendship Day is marked by joyous celebrations and various activities that bring friends closer together. People exchange gifts, cards, and tokens of appreciation to express their affection and gratitude for their friends. Many organize parties, outings, and gatherings to spend quality time with their closest companions. Social media platforms also buzz with heartwarming messages, pictures, and stories shared by friends celebrating their bond.

Importance of Friendship Day:

Friendship Day holds immense significance as it reminds us of the value of true friendship in our lives. Friends play a crucial role in shaping our personalities, supporting us through ups and downs, and being the pillars of strength in difficult times. This special day serves as a reminder to cherish and nurture these invaluable relationships that enrich our lives.

Quotes about Friendship:

Numerous profound quotes highlight the essence of friendship and its impact on our lives. A few notable ones are:

• “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” – Walter Winchell
• “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'” – C.S. Lewis
• “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” – Elbert Hubbard
• “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” – Woodrow Wilson
• “A true friend is someone who accepts your past, supports your present, and encourages your future.” – Unknown

Conclusion:

Friendship Day serves as a beautiful occasion to acknowledge and celebrate the wonderful people who add meaning to our lives – our friends. It is a reminder that true friendships are invaluable treasures that deserve recognition and appreciation. On this day, we embrace the joy of having someone who understands us deeply, laughs with us, and stands by our side unconditionally. As we celebrate Friendship Day, let us remember the significance of these bonds and strive to be a true friend to others as well. For in friendship, we find the essence of love, trust, and a shared journey of life that makes it truly worth living.

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Friendship Day Celebrations Date Back To 1935: Discover Its Unique History, Significance

Aug 2, 2023

Cheers To BFFs

Friendship Day, an occasion to honour the irreplaceable bonds that light up our lives, is a celebration of laughter shared, shoulders leaned on, and memories cherished together. We might not get to choose the family we are born into but friends, we do.

Image Source: iStock

Mark Your Calenders

In India, set aside on the first Sunday of August, the day is a reminder to treasure the friends who stand by us through the thick and thin of life. This year, it will be marked on August 6.

Exploring The Timeline

The tradition for this day traces back to 1930s when Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark Cards, first proposed the idea. However, it gained traction when the United States Congress officially recognized Friendship Day in 1935.

The Friendship Inception

The World Friendship Crusade was established in 1958 to promote the significance of friendship and bridge cultural divides. This ultimately led to the declaration of July 30 as International Friendship Day by the United Nations in 2011.

Transcending Borders

Friendship transcends geographical boundaries, uniting hearts across the globe. From India's vibrant threads symbolizing eternal bonds to Spain's 'Dia del Amigo', cultures infuse this day with their unique flavors, while the core essence of this special bond remains universal.

Tokens Of Love & Hugs

People exchange heartfelt messages, gifts, and tokens of appreciation to express their affection for their friends. Community gatherings, parties, and outings are also organised to celebrate this unbreakable bond.

Friendship Bands

In some countries, people tie friendship bands on their friends' wrists as a symbol of everlasting friendship. These bands aren't just accessories; they are tangible memories, handcrafted with love. They symbolize the moments, the secrets, and the shared dreams that only the closest of friends can understand.

Hollywood's Friendship Academy

Hollywood has been schooling us in the art of friendships since forever. Movies like 'Friends', 'Toy Story', & 'Harry Potter' have turned on the friendship spotlight, showing us that pals who stick together through obstacles are the real superheroes.

Image Source: Agencies

Virtual Cheers & Digital Hugs

Friendship Day's evolution includes the rise of virtual celebrations. In 2023, online games, video calls, and virtual gatherings form an integral part of commemorating the day. These digital rendezvous transcend geographical barriers, reaffirming the notion that friendship knows no physical limits.

Painting Life's Beautiful Tapestry

Brushstrokes of laughter, splashes of shared memories – Friendship Day isn't just a date; it's an emotion that colors our world. As we gear up for Friendship Day 2023, let's celebrate the vibrant connections that make our journey truly extraordinary.

Thanks For Reading!

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Friendship Day 2023: How to make good friends in school? Check expert tips here!

Friendship day 2023: a good and healthy friendship can impact your overall well-being so it’s important to have good and selective friends. read here to know tips and tricks to make good friends in school..

Friendship Day 2023: Friendship Day is observed every year in India on the first Sunday of August and this year, the day will be celebrated on 6 August, 2023 (Sunday). The day is dedicated to friendships and their importance in one's life. Friends are there for us through thick and thin, and they make our lives richer and more enjoyable. But it is important to focus on quality rather than quantity to make the experience of friendship better. On this special day, we are going to discuss the impact and influence of having good friends and tips to make quality friends for life.

Why have good and selective friends?

The quality of friendship impacts your social, emotional, and academic development so it's important that you make good and quality friends. While a positive friendship can add to your happiness, support, and personal growth,  an unhealthy friendship can have devastating effects on your well-being and overall success. Therefore, it’s really important to choose friends wisely and learn to build positive relationships for holistic development.

Advantages of Having Good Friends

• Creating positive influence
• Emotional support
• Boosting self-esteem
• Academic motivation
• Building social skills
• Reducing negative influences
• Reducing stress levels
• Creating lasting memories
• Enhancing happiness and well-being
• Learning conflict resolution

How to Choose Good Friends?

In order to make good and selective friends, you must be intentional about the ones you choose to be friends with. Some of the best and most effective tips to help you make meaningful and selective friends are mentioned below:

1.Mark out your values and interests and look for friends with similar beliefs and hobbies.

2.Observe how they treat others and their behaviour in handling conflicts.

3.Invest your time in people who make you feel genuinely happy and respected.

4.Focus on building strong bonds with a few individuals rather than making friends with groups.

5.Keep away from toxic friendship as it can have damaging effects on your well-being.

6.Be a part of meaningful conversations with your potential friends to help you assess mutual compatibility.

7.Seek friends who are reliable and trustworthy.

8.Be patient and give time for friendship to develop naturally.

9.Keep distance from those who don't positively contribute to your life.

Expert’s Guide to Make Good Friends at School

Students need to build special skills for making good and selective friends and developing healthy relationships. Check below the expert tips to make the process easy for you:

1.Be yourself and let your true personality shine through.

2.Be approachable so that people are more likely to want to talk to you.

3.Find common interests to start a conversation with someone.

4.Get involved in extracurricular activities to find people who share your interests.

5.Be supportive and ready to help your friends in need.

6.Develop the quality of forgiveness to avoid meaningless conflicts and arguments.

7.Be a good listener and wait for your turn to talk without interrupting others.

Making good and meaningful friends takes time and requires effort. Having good friends won’t only make school life more enjoyable, but will leave some unforgettable moments that you will cherish all through your life. So don't be afraid to put yourself out there and make good friends for life.

Happy Friendship Day!

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• international friendship day

International Friendship Day 2023: July 30 History, Theme, Significance, and Quotes

Jul 30 2023

International Friendship Day 2023: Every year International Friendship Day is celebrated across the globe on 30th July. Bu t in India friendship day usually celebrated on the first Sunday of august. So this year Friendship Day 2023 is celebrated on the 6th of August in India. Friendship Day 2023 is celebrated every year by the United Nations (UN) on the 30th of  July, while some countries celebrate this day as National Friendship Day on some other dates. International Friendship Day 2023 indicates the importance of friendships in our lives. International Friendship Day 2023 is celebrated exclusively to honor the friends in our lives and thank them for the meaningful direction that our lives have taken since we met them. So this International Friendship Day 2023 which falls on the 30th of July is the correct time and opportunity to honor our friends and let them know how much love and care we have given for them. We can celebrate this International Friendship Day 2023 by going out with our friends, surprising them with gifts, writing heartfelt messages in letters, giving greeting cards, baking a cake for them, etc., On this International Friendship Day 2023, you have to express how much love and care you have given to them by saying I Love You, My Friend. So here we have given the information for International Friendship Day 2023 History, International Friendship Day 2023 Theme, International Friendship Day 2023 significance, International Friendship Day 2023 quotes. You can get to know all the information about International Friendship Day 2023 by making use of this article. 

International Friendship Day History

The idea for the first-ever friendship day came even before the World Friendship Crusade's proposal. This idea of International Friendship Day came from a person called Joyce Hal l, founder of Hallmark Cards, Inc., on August 2, 1930. Even before the proposal of the World Friendship Crusade, the first-ever friendship day was perhaps conceptualized by the Greeting Card National Association which tried to sell the idea of a Friendship Day in the 1920s to increase sales of their greeting cards, However, the idea didn't work out. 

International Friendship Day 2023 Theme

The International Friendship Day 2023 theme is “ Sharing the human spirit through friendship .” Friendship and connections are means of bonding, and building those common bonds goes beyond sharing a trait, characteristic, or favorite pastime with another person or group, but also includes promoting a global commitment and understanding of diversity and inclusion. Friendship is a key source to maintain social harmony and mildness among societies. A friend makes us believe in ourselves when things don't seem rosy and pulls us out of our darkest phase. So you can celebrate International Friendship Day 2023 by dedicating some time to your beloved friends and surprising them with various gifts and messages. 

International Friendship Day 2023 Significance

International Friendship Day 2023 is celebrated exclusively to honor the friends in our lives and thank them for the meaningful direction that our lives have taken since we met them. So this International Friendship Day 2023 which falls on the 30th of July is the correct time and opportunity to honor our friends and let them know how much love and care we have given for them. International Friendship Day 2023 indicates the importance of friendships in our lives. We can celebrate this International Friendship Day 2023 by going out with our friends, surprising them with gifts, writing heartfelt messages in letters, giving greeting cards, baking a cake for them, etc., The motive to celebrate International Friendship Day 2023 is that no matter how strong relationships are, they do need validation and nurture on occasion and International Friendship Day 2023 is an opportunity to realize and show our unconditional love and support to our friends.

International Friendship Day 2023 Quotes

•  Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything." - Muhammad Ali
• “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”- Elie Wiesel
• "A true friend is someone who is always there for you, through the ups and downs." - Walter Winchell
• "Friendship is the most constant, the most enduring, the most basic part of love." - Ed Cunningham
• “Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” - Bill Watterson

International Friendship Day 2023 FAQs

Q. When is International Friendship Day 2023 will be celebrated?

A. International Friendship Day 2023 is celebrated on the 30th of July. 

Q. When will be Friendship Day 2023 celebrated in India? 

A.  In India Friendship Day 2023 will be celebrated on the first Sunday of August which falls on the 6th of August. 

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Friendship Day 2023 Date: When is Friendship Day in 2023?

Friendship day 2023 date in india: on this day, friends exchange gifts, hold special events and even go out for a get-together..

Friendship Day 2023 Date: A day to celebrate the lifelong bonds between friends, Friendship Day is an exciting event for all, especially children. On this day, friends exchange gifts , hold special events and even go out for a get-together. A common, traditional way to celebrate the day is by tying a decorative thread on your friend’s wrist as a symbol of your friendship and love. In 2023, this day falls on July 30.

Though the United Nations General Assembly recognise July 30 as the official International Friendship Day, several countries such as India, observe it on the first Sunday of the month of August. As such, for countries like India, the date may vary, while the day of the week remains the same. 

This day marks a day of fun, joy and togetherness, but the beginning of Friendship Day was anything but smooth. The idea was proposed by Joyce Hall, the Hallmark Cards founder in 1930. Her proposal was that this day be celebrated on August 2 by exchanging gifts and greeting cards among friends. Thereupon, the National Association of greeting cards further encouraged Hall’s proposal which was seen by many as a commercial tactic to promote the sale of greeting cards. 

Five years later, in 1935, in the aftermath of the World War I disasters, the US Congress decided to commemorate a day for friendship. This initiative was undertaken by the US in attempts to dilute thoughts of hate, mistrust and enmity between countries and communities. In 2011, the United Nations finally established July 30 as International Friendship Day.

In India, Friendship Day is celebrated with much fervour. Many eateries, amusement parks, among others host special events, offer great discounts and more. For many friends, this is one day to forget the differences, fights, arguments and remind each other of their love for one another. It is also celebrated in many schools with small programmes or feasts held within friends’ groups. The friendship band exchanged between friends often become the fondest possessions of many who preserve it for years to come.

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Reading Sylvia Plath and my dead friend’s Instagram

We were plath girls in our youth. claiming her was a way to elevate our teenage sadness from cliché to literary, by lilly dancyger.

From the book " FIRST LOVE: Essays on Friendship " by Lilly Dancyger. Copyright © 2024 by Lilly Dancyger. Published by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Heather had invited me over to her apartment in Inwood several times in the last year or so, but for one reason or another, the scheduling had never worked out. We kept promising each other, “soon.” Now I was finally here, for the first time, to help pack up her things. She’d been dead for a week.

I scanned the stacks of books teetering against one wall, not on shelves but layered like bricks, and a slim off-white spine called to me: Sylvia Plath’s "Ariel." It felt like a morbidly appropriate souvenir of this day.

Heather was a definite Plath Girl as a teenager. I was too — just two of countless teenage girls since the ’60s to proclaim our love for the bracing and violent "Ariel" poems, and "The Bell Jar," Plath’s fictionalized account of her first mental breakdown, suicide attempt and institutionalization — a not-at-all-subtle way of making sure the world knew we were in pain. “I just really identify with Esther Greenwood,” we’d tell adults: a threat. Claiming Plath was a way to elevate our teenage sadness from pedestrian and expected and cliché to literary, tragic, romantic. To tie our early-aughts angst to a dignified and important history.

We weren’t the first or the last teenage girls to romanticize sadness and tragedy, of course. Before Plath there were Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson and the Brontë sisters, each with her own morose devotees.

More recently, there was the “sad girl aesthetic” era of Tumblr — young women posting photos of themselves with mascara tears running down their cheeks, or black-and-white selfies in which they’re staring mournfully into the distance, with quotes about depression and existential ennui for captions. The social media sad girl has a very specific tone — the inherent vulnerability of expressing sadness coated in a protective gloss of sardonic humor and irony. Alongside the dramatic crying selfies, sad girl Tumblr pages were full of simple, morose statements like “I hate my life” written in glittery pink cursive or pastels, the cheerful presentation clashing with the message to strike the discordant note central to so much internet humor.

When I got home from packing up Heather’s apartment, I wrote “Heather’s” on the title page of her copy of “Ariel” in small, neat script, as if I could forget. I started to read it, but only got as far as “Lady Lazarus,” five poems in — to the line about meaning to “last it out and not come back at all” —  before the connection to Heather felt too painfully literal. I closed the worn paperback and slid it onto a shelf, where it would sit unopened for years.

Claiming Plath was a way to elevate our teenage sadness from pedestrian and expected and cliché to literary, tragic, romantic.

The tragedy of her death mingling with the brilliance of her poetry made Plath an icon, but it also made her sadness and her tragic end her defining traits. It wasn’t until decades later that a new generation of Plath scholars would advocate for dimension in readings of her work — pushing fans to celebrate her birthday rather than her death date, publishing analyses and close readings of her poems about bees rather than only the ones that evoke death and violence. “The public perception of Plath as a witchy death-goddess had been born and would not soon die,” Plath biographer Heather Clark writes.

I don’t want to flatten Heather in this way — as sure as I am that she would absolutely relish the title “witchy death-goddess.” It’s too easy to remember her as a sad girl because of her sad death. To rewrite her life, starting with the end. But there was so much more to her than that.

She carried herself with the ease of a beautiful woman, swinging her hips and not blushing at raunchy jokes, when the rest of us were still awkward girls.

She was proud of being Jewish and proud of being Chinese and she delighted in the exploration of both sides of her heritage, through study and food and fashion — cooking noodle kugel in a qipao and calling herself a “Lower East Side special.”

She had this guffawing laugh — not the cackle that cracked the air around her when someone else said something funny, but a single goofy exhaled chuckle, the laugh she laughed after she said something she thought was funny. It was so totally incongruous with the hot girl it emanated from, so unexpectedly and endearingly dopey, you couldn’t help but laugh at her laughing at her own joke.

These are the things I most want to remember about Heather.

But the sadness was such a big part of who she was, of how she saw herself and how she moved through the world, it would be as much a disservice to her to gloss over it as it would be to let it take over my memory of her completely.

The first time Heather called me in the middle of the night saying she wanted to kill herself, I treated it like an emergency.

It’s too easy to remember her as a sad girl because of her sad death. To rewrite her life, starting with the end.

I woke up to my phone buzzing on the table next to my bed, confused. It was past three in the morning. I blinked the sleep from my eyes and cleared my throat before answering urgently, “Hello?”

On the other side of the line, Heather sobbed. When she finally spoke, it was more of a wail, “I wanna die!”

I offered to come to her, asked if she wanted to come to me, asked if I should call an ambulance, but I realized quickly that she didn’t want to be rescued, she just wanted to be heard. She wanted someone to know how much she was hurting. So I listened. I got back into bed and lay down, but didn’t close my eyes.

“I love you,” I said. “I’m so glad you’re alive. I’m so sorry.”

Eventually her sobs slowed to sniffles. I asked if she thought she’d be able to sleep and she sighed, “Yeah.” When I woke up again a few hours later, there was a text from her: “Thanks. Feeling better. Love you. <3”

But that call was just the first of many.

They all played out the same way, but after the third, or fourth, or twentieth time over the next few years, my responses lost some of their urgency. I stopped fearing that her life was truly at stake and came to understand the calls to be a release valve. They became routine. Then they became overwhelming. I started to run out of ways to tell her to go back to therapy, to take her meds; to reassure her that she was loved and yes, she would be missed if she died — desperately. I could sense her wariness, not wanting to give me more of her pain than I could handle. I would never stop taking her calls, but she could tell they were wearing on me, that I didn’t know what else to say.

Eventually, the calls stopped.

I learned after she died that I was one of several people who got these calls — she rotated between us, trying not to dump too much on any one person. But still, one by one, we ’d all burned out. We all reported the same thing to each other, after: “Eventually, she stopped calling.”

In the year before her death, when she’d run out of people to call in the middle of the night, Heather started venting her sadness on Instagram instead. She posted frequently, mostly memes about mental illness and extreme close-ups of her face, bleary-eyed like she’d been crying. Slack, expressionless. Wearing too much makeup. Her posts made me uncomfortable.

We’d posted all kinds of dark s**t on our LiveJournals back in the day, sure — but Instagram was different, less anonymous. And we were adults now, with professional jobs. I also didn’t yet fully understand what her recent bipolar diagnosis meant; how much was out of her control. I judged her for being such a mess.

Layered over that visceral reaction was a more conscious understanding that I was wrong — that she could post whatever she wanted — and I didn’t like myself for judging her. So rather than staying in the cycle of having a knee-jerk negative reaction each time I scrolled past a new lurid selfie and then feeling guilty for recoiling, I unfollowed her. (This was before Instagram had a “mute” option.)

I know that Heather’s Instagram isn’t a work of art on par with “Ariel.” But it was a hurting woman’s connection to the world; it was how she expressed herself.

Of course, after Heather died, I wanted to go back and scroll through all of those selfies, to examine them like clues, to see if maybe there was a caption that would feel like a message from beyond death, like Plath’s “Dying/ Is an art.” But she’d locked her account, so I couldn’t re-follow after she died. It took seven years for me to swallow my guilt and ask our friend Sydney to take screenshots of some of Heather’s posts and send them to me.

I remembered Heather’s feed as one bleary-eyed, desperate-looking selfie after another, hard to look at and hard to look away from. But in the month before she died, I notice when Sydney sends me a folder full of screenshots, there were only a few of these. I find them beautiful now — not for their tragedy, but just because they’re my friend’s beautiful face. They don’t look as dramatic as I remembered. Interspersed with these selfies is a perfectly normal-looking amalgam of glimpses of her life: a sign for evening services at her synagogue, a spread of new paints, a David Foster Wallace meme, a tattoo she liked of a sloth’s face and the words “Live slow, Die whenever,” and an absolutely stunning black-and-white photograph of her in which her hair is curled and her eyebrows darkened, and she looks like a Wong Kar-wai heroine.

Twelve days before she died, Heather posted a smiling photo of herself with the caption “One week. Different world. Different mood. Different me. Living proof. Things do get better.” I scanned back through her posts and saw that seven days earlier she’d posted two depressed-looking selfies; one of her in bed, her hair covering her eyes, her mouth slack; another of her holding a cigarette, staring blank and expressionless past the camera. But it’s the smiling “Things do get better” post that gets me in the gut. To see that she was trying, that she had hope, even, just 12 days before she decided there would be no hope for her ever again. In this picture, she’s smiling, but her eyes are glassy, with dark circles under them. I can see the strain, the effort it took her to feel optimistic. Or maybe I can only see that now, looking back, knowing she’d be dead less than two weeks later. Would Plath’s reference to carbon monoxide in “A Birthday Present” (“Sweetly, sweetly I breathe in”) feel as ominous if you didn’t know she died exactly that way soon after writing it?

I know that Heather’s Instagram isn’t a work of art on par with “Ariel.” But it was a hurting woman’s connection to the world; it was how she expressed herself. And now it’s an archive rich with posthumous meaning. So I don’t think the comparison is that much of a stretch, actually.

Heather’s last post ever is a meme, white text against a dark purple background: “i put the hot in psychotic.” A decade later, this meme and the bleak black-and-white selfies are clearly recognizable as pitch-perfect examples of the sad girl aesthetic. Heather didn’t have a Tumblr account, as far as I know, but she embodied the aesthetic on her Instagram right at the time when it started to spill over onto that platform and others beyond its birthplace.

Today, the once-controversial jokes of the online sad girl are ubiquitous far beyond their original little corner of the internet, with people posting casually about depression and dissociation on their otherwise professional Twitter accounts. The Reddit group r/depressionmemes — a mix of the general “lol life is pain” brand of memes you can expect to find on other social media, and posts that directly express, if in meme form, suicidal ideation — has tens of thousands of members. And the sad girl lives on in yet another generation on TikTok, where “#SadTok” videos of (still pretty, young, mostly white) girls looking into the camera as tears roll down their cheeks have millions and millions of views.

If jokes about wanting to die are so casual now, how are we supposed to know when somebody means it?

When Heather and I loudly proclaimed our misery as teenagers, we were signaling our separation from the herd, our rejection of the social standard. Declaring that we saw the world clearly enough to see how f**ked up everything was, even if the powers that be didn’t want us to notice. But these sentiments aren’t subversive anymore — they’re almost assumed as a baseline.

This sense that everyone is depressed feels like it’s at least in part a reaction to the political climate and the literal climate of the last few years; the pervasive feeling that the world is ending, for real this time. Impending fascism, global pandemic, daily mass shootings and frequent catastrophic weather events have primed us all for malaise. And there’s something cathartic about how normal it feels now to say out loud that everything feels hopeless and you’re not sure you’re going to live much longer. But I also can’t help but think of Heather these days when I see one internet acquaintance after another post about being too depressed to cook — not as if this were a dire state to be in, but as a casual way to ask for recommendations of easy recipes; or express their enjoyment of new music by any of the new guard of sad girls like Mitski, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers by posting about how hard they’re crying. It all feels so normal that it doesn’t worry me at all. But the fact that it doesn’t worry me sometimes worries me. If jokes about wanting to die are so casual now, how are we supposed to know when somebody means it?

The internet makes it difficult to tell what’s real. This is a common conversation in terms of presenting only our most manicured selves, especially on Instagram — the most aspirational of the mainstream social media platforms. The prevalence of posts about depression feels like a reaction to the too-perfect online aesthetic that developed with rise of influencers. People are rejecting the shiny illusion and trying to show each other that sometimes our hair is dirty and our desks are cluttered and our coffee doesn’t have little foam hearts on it; that sometimes we even want to die. But even when people try to post about the messy, ugly, real stuff, it still feels like a manicured presentation. Like it’s all still curated and put on for consumption, another lever to pull in adjusting how we want to be seen by the world. So much so that even a depression that will soon lead to suicide can feel, through the filter of social media, like content.

Heather wasn’t just sad, she was prone to severe depression. But because being a sad girl had been part of how she presented herself to the world for so long, it seemed like she could go on posting mental illness memes and playing “Crazy” on the jukebox at the bar forever and ultimately she’d be OK.

If you are in crisis, please call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

personal stories about friendship

• When your friend is dying, it's OK to steal her scarves
• Our group chat is a sacred space to talk openly about being Black in America
• From magnificent tree to "nurse log": After her fall, she's still nourishing me from the forest floor

Lilly Dancyger is the author of " First Love: Essays on Friendship ," and " Negative Space ." She lives in New York City, and is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in nonfiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts. Find her on Instagram at @lillydancyger and Substack at The Word Cave.

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Close Friends, Competing for Coveted Olympic Spots. Who Would Make It?

Conner Mantz and Clayton Young had run side by side for more than 10,000 miles. Both vied for a place in the marathon at the Paris Games.

Credit... Russel Daniels for The New York Times

Supported by

By Talya Minsberg

Talya Minsberg reported from Provo, Utah, and interviewed the Young and Mantz families, coaches and teammates.

• May 8, 2024

Conner Mantz’s arms were shaking as he warmed up for the Olympic marathon trials in Orlando in February.

Mr. Mantz, 27, of Provo, Utah, looked over to his close friend, Clayton Young, who was stretching next to him. The two men had run more than 10,000 miles together. They had raced for the same prize money, fought for the same spots on the podium — and formed a bond so strong that other runners said they wished they could replicate it. They had supported each other through season-ending injuries, and pushed each other through grueling training sessions.

Their friendship has lifted both runners to the peak of their professional careers. Both believed they had gotten the other to the starting line that day. Now, they hoped to get each other to the marathon at the Olympic Games in Paris. They had a real shot: Mr. Mantz was a favorite to qualify, and Mr. Young was a strong contender.

If they made the team, their years of grinding out monotonous miles would be rewarded with the opportunity to represent their country, and an even better chance at financial security for their families.

But so much could go wrong in the two-plus hours it would take to complete the race, and Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young had daunting competition, including the four-time Olympian Galen Rupp and a score of other competitors who might surprise them.

By the time the runners approached the starting line, it was 61 degrees with 65 percent humidity — the kind of warm and muggy weather that makes a 26.2-mile race even more of a test. Mr. Young held a bag of ice in his hands in an attempt to stay cool. He and Mr. Mantz, both wearing white hats and black sunglasses, shook their limbs nervously as the countdown began.

About 200 men stood twitching at the starting line. It was likely that only two would get places on the U.S. Olympic team.

The horn blared. The two friends bumped fists and started running.

A Parallel Path to Elite Running

By the time Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young met at Brigham Young University in 2017, both had established themselves as rising stars in distance running.

Mr. Young, now 30, started running in fifth grade thanks to a program called the Mileage Club. Every lap he ran around the soccer field during Friday recess put him closer to earning prizes, like a keychain with a tiny foot. It was also a chance for Mr. Young to race against one of his childhood friends, named Alex. Even then, he loved the competition, and the back-and-forth between friends that motivated them to log more miles.

Mr. Mantz decided at age 12 that he wanted to run a half marathon after watching his older brother and father do the same. When his father started to run marathons, Mr. Mantz announced that he wanted to run the full 26.2 miles, too. (After consulting his doctors, his parents pumped the brakes — but they did let him join the cross-country team.)

Both Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young found joy in the sport. By the time they joined their high school track and cross-country teams, their potential was clear. College coaches soon started calling.

Mr. Young chose B.Y.U. in part because it favored the team over star athletes. Two years later, Mr. Mantz arrived, drawn partly by coach Ed Eyestone, who had run two Olympic marathons himself. The university is supported by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which both runners are members.

Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young said their faith puts their running in perspective: Like all athletes, they have faced injuries and setbacks, and can get sucked into the cutthroat nature of competition, even with each other. But, as Mr. Mantz put it, “we are very focused on the eternal.”

Mr. Eyestone can’t recall the moment when he saw something click between the runners, but their connection quickly became clear. While there is a natural competitiveness among elite runners, Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young were “comfortable enough with one another that the ego does not get in the way of workouts,” Mr. Eyestone said. Mr. Mantz liked to lead the pack and set the pace, and Mr. Young could follow without turning practice into a competition.

That doesn’t mean that race days were as cordial as practice. “He doesn’t want to get beat, and I want to beat him,” Mr. Young said. He is the more analytical of the two: Mr. Young pores over his training data, and closely follows the research on human performance to help the pair improve.

“He’s always trying to find the next best thing — what can we do better?” Mr. Mantz said.

When Mr. Young graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2018, he had a decision to make — sign a professional contract that would require him to move out of state, or stay in Utah, where Mr. Mantz still had two years left in school.

He chose to stay, in part so he and his partner could continue to train together, with the idea that Mr. Mantz might stay after graduation, too. A running contract with the shoe company Asics made it financially possible for Mr. Young.

The two spoke of these choices delicately. “It was his decision he had to reach by himself, and he did,” Mr. Young said. But they shared the same belief: “If we went our separate ways, I just don’t think we’d be as good as we are now,” Mr. Young said.

‘Where’s Clayton?’

There was never a guarantee that the United States would have a men’s marathoner at the Paris Games. To secure even one spot , at least one American man would have to finish a marathon, somewhere, in under 2 hours, 8 minutes and 10 seconds. That was the threshold for having a team at all.

There was a twist, detailed in the 24 dense pages of U.S.A. Track & Field’s athlete selection rules: Achieving that time wouldn’t necessarily secure a place on the team for the person who ran it. It would simply create a spot that someone could then win by performing well at the marathon trials in Orlando.

And no matter how many American runners beat that time, the United States would send no more than three men’s marathoners to Paris — the cap set for each country.

As the 2024 Olympic year approached, Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young focused on running the qualifying time. No one had achieved it by October 2023, when they lined up for the Chicago Marathon. The course is flat and fast, giving the field a better shot at beating the time.

Their wives, Ashley Young and Kylie Mantz, crisscrossed the Chicago course, trying to glimpse their husbands as often as possible along the winding route. They were comforted to see them sticking together. “There’s no better person I’d like to have next to Conner,” Ms. Mantz said of Mr. Young.

As they cheered, they kept one eye anxiously on the time. They share the same nerves on race day: Both women know how hard their husbands have worked, the results they want, how their race times and finishes can affect their livelihoods. They understand how unpredictable and brutal a marathon can be — and on race day, they have little interest in talking to anyone who doesn’t.

During the final stretch of the Chicago race, they were leaning over barricades, necks craned, looking for their husbands flying by at a pace close to 4 minutes and 53 seconds per mile.

When Mr. Mantz passed them at Mile 23, every breath powering him toward the finish, he used his precious energy to shout one thing: “Where’s Clayton?” Mr. Young was close behind him.

When Mr. Mantz finished in 2:07:47, he turned around to see Mr. Young cross the finish line just 13 seconds later. They clocked the fifth and seventh fastest marathon times ever for Americans and were the only Americans who achieved the threshold time for Paris. But they still had to win their places on the team.

‘Just Stay Together’

Over the years, the two runners’ families have become close. As soon as Mr. and Ms. Mantz stepped into the Youngs’ house on a recent afternoon, Ms. Young asked whether they were hungry, opening the fridge to grab fruit and yogurt before they’d had a chance to answer. As Mr. Young and Mr. Mantz went outside to stretch, the Youngs’ daughters, Lucy and Jenna, tagged along. They adore Mr. Mantz, whom they call “diddum.”

But after the Chicago race, like most others, Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young didn’t contact each other for a few days. It went unsaid, as it always did, that they needed time to themselves.

At times, Mr. Young and Mr. Mantz sound less like competitors and more like an old married couple. They know how to compromise. (Mr. Young likes to run later in the morning, while Mr. Mantz is an earlier riser. They meet in the middle, at 7 a.m.) They can press each other’s buttons — like when Mr. Mantz pushes the pace during a workout, at times to Mr. Young’s frustration — but they also know when to lay off.

“We have to dance around each other sometimes and work through our emotions and feelings,” Mr. Young said.

They were soon back together to begin a training cycle for the Orlando trials.

There were still only two guaranteed spots available on the Olympic team — the two they had created in Chicago. Technically, another runner could still unlock a third spot. But if they didn’t, both Mr. Mantz and Mr. Young would have to finish first and second to make the team.

For much of the race, they followed a runner named Zach Panning, letting him do the work of leading and setting the pace. By the time they reached Mile 18, they knew they were in the position to qualify for Paris. The anxiety that had Mr. Mantz’s arms shaking at the start of the race had given way to a loose, controlled show of excitement. Mr. Mantz reached back to high-five Mr. Young.

In the last two miles, though, Mr. Mantz started struggling. He had stumbled at the end of races before, his muscles and lungs pushed to the brink. He feared he wouldn’t finish.

He asked Mr. Young to step ahead of him, to block the headwind that makes the final miles even harder. Mr. Young shifted his position. “Just run behind me,” he told Mr. Mantz. “Just stay together.”

The pair was stride for stride, as they have so often been, as they approached the finish line in first and second place. In the final steps, Mr. Young signaled Mr. Mantz to take the win , even though that meant giving him the extra $15,000 in prize money that came with first place.

They looked awe-struck as they broke the tape, making them the only two American men to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

“When I think of the reason I stuck by Conner in the Olympic trials, it’s because I knew I would be better in Paris with Conner by my side,” Mr. Young said, as Mr. Mantz nodded. “Not just in the Olympics, but in training.”

This time around, they didn’t have much of a break. They were quickly swept up in the excitement of qualifying for the Olympics: a trip to the Utah State Capitol and a string of media appearances and sponsor meetings.

And they already had another race on the calendar: the New York City Half Marathon in March. A few days before that race, Mr. Mantz had to drop out because of an injury. He couldn’t be too careful before the Olympic training cycle began.

That left Mr. Young to train without his partner. As he tied his shoes at home in Provo before a solo run one recent morning, he looked around, as if he were missing something.

Talya Minsberg is a reporter covering fitness and wellness for The Times. More about Talya Minsberg

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