Happy International Happiness Day

LONDON - If you want to avoid the risk of being accosted by total strangers urging you to “be happy,” you should probably stay home on Wednesday.

The United Nations has declared March 20 the first International Day of Happiness to underline the commitment of its 193 member states to “better capture the importance of the pursuit of happiness and well-being in development with a view to guiding their public policies.”

According to the Positive News Web site, based in Britain, a raft of events and activities will take place to mark the day.

“There is the Happy Lunch event in Brussels, for example, or the thought-provoking Economics of Happiness conference in Australia,” it reported.

“Those in Washington D.C. can expect a flood of happiness when the free hugs flash mob takes over, and passers-by at London’s Liverpool Street train station will be inspired by groups of people holding up boards and banners with positive messages written on them.”

You have been warned.

The initiative for Happiness Day came from the Kingdom of Bhutan, the small landlocked Himalayan state, which adopted a Gross National Happiness Index as a better measure of its people’s prosperity than its income.

Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General, marked the day by calling for a reinforced commitment to inclusive and sustainable human development.

“When we contribute to the common good, we ourselves are enriched,” he said. “Compassion promotes happiness and will help build the future we want.”

No one would deny the positive benefits of happiness, a state of mind that Americans have been pursuing as an inalienable right since the Declaration of Independence.

The Action for Happiness organization in Britain urges people to count their blessings. “People who are grateful tend to be happier, healthier and more fulfilled,” it says. “Being grateful can help people cope with stress and can even have a beneficial effect on heart rate.”

Academic studies of happiness have proliferated in recent years, with interest spawning a range of international indexes ranking the well-being of nations.

A WIN-Gallup International poll of global hope and happiness revealed in December that gloom was subsiding worldwide amid optimism about economic recovery, although the “gloomy trend” in Western Europe still faced challenges.

The finding appeared to acknowledge a link between happiness and economic prosperity, although the poll also found that “a large number of people refuse to be gloomy despite their poor view on economic prospects for their nation.”

Governments have a natural tendency to trumpet their high rankings in such polls as a way of claiming credit for their citizens’ happiness.

A 2004 paper by researchers at Austria’s University of Graz nevertheless cautioned that, “many studies have shown that happiness varies substantially between nations and that these differences are relatively stable over time.”

There was some skepticism about whether the United Nations, which deals daily with the misery created by war and famine, and which, at the level of the Security Council, appears unable to resolve crises in Syria and elsewhere, really needed a Happiness Day.

Le Monde grumpily noted that around 120 days were already set aside in the U.N. calendar to celebrate themes as diverse as jazz, migratory birds and rural women.

“This is either a way of trivializing happiness,” it wrote, “or of suggesting that one day’s happiness a year is enough!”

Has the U.N. got better things to do than try to cheer us all up And should governments take credit or blame for our changing moods Tell us what you think. Meanwhile, have a good day!