Random Acts of Kindness Day
Next: February 17, 2027
Do one small kind thing today.
The story
Where it comes from
The Random Acts of Kindness movement began in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1982 the Berkeley writer Anne Herbert published the first known account of the phrase 'Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Acts of Senseless Beauty'. A decade later it was spotted on a warehouse wall, shared with a class of schoolchildren and written up in the San Francisco Chronicle. A 1993 book of kindness stories inspired local kindness days, and in February 1995 the first national Random Acts of Kindness Day took place, along with the foundation that still runs it.
How it's celebrated
The idea is to do something kind for someone, ideally a stranger, without being asked and without expecting anything back. People pay for the next person's coffee, leave an encouraging note on a colleague's desk, help a neighbour with shopping or send a card for no reason at all. The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation shares free ideas and classroom resources, and many schools and workplaces build a whole kindness week around the day.
Did you know
- Anne Herbert's phrase first appeared in CoEvolution Quarterly, a magazine published in the Bay Area.
- The Chronicle columnist heard of the phrase through their daughter, a pupil of the teacher whose wife had seen it on the wall.
- The foundation, now based in Denver, Colorado, describes itself as a small non-profit and has kept the day in February, close to Valentine's Day, since 1995.
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- International Mother Language Day · February 21, 2027