Global Handwashing Day
Next: October 15, 2027
Twenty seconds with soap.
The story
Where it comes from
Global Handwashing Day was started by the Global Handwashing Partnership, then called the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, and announced at World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2008, the UN's International Year of Sanitation. On the first day, 15 October 2008, about 120 million children in 73 countries across five continents washed their hands with soap. The idea behind it is simple: washing hands with soap is one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective ways to prevent disease and save lives.
How it's celebrated
Schools, health workers and community leaders run demonstrations, build sinks and simple 'tippy taps', and teach children the critical times to wash: before preparing food, before eating, and after using the toilet. Anyone can join in with a proper wash: wet your hands, lather, scrub for at least 20 seconds, rinse and dry.
Did you know
- On the first Global Handwashing Day, cricket star Sachin Tendulkar led India's campaign as children across South Asia washed their hands at the same time.
- Need a timer for the 20-second scrub? The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests humming 'Happy Birthday' from beginning to end twice.
- In 1847 the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis had medical students at a Vienna maternity clinic wash their hands in a chlorine solution, and deaths from childbed fever fell sharply.
Coming up next
- World Food Day · October 16, 2027
- International Day of the Intangible Cultural Heritage · October 17, 2027
- World Menopause Day · October 18, 2027
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's Birthday · October 19, 2027
- Vietnamese Women's Day · October 20, 2027
- International Chefs Day · October 20, 2027