Emojis serve as an effective communication medium for emotions in the written form, without the use of letters. They evolved from ascii art that they were at the beginning to animated faces and signs and continue to evolve every now and then. 17th July of every year is commemorated as World Emoji Day to celebrate the existing of emojis.
World Emoji Day History & Significance
- The pictorial display of emotions became a craze worldwide as soon as it came into existence.
- Emojis became a superhit right from the start in Japan and soon spread to the US and the other parts of the world. It soon became a global practice to use them for pictorial communication.
- World Emoji Day acknowledges the existence of emojis and celebrates how incomplete digital communication feels without them.
- The use of pictorial figures dates back to the ancient Egyptian times or even earlier.
- Emoji Day recognises the use of emojis as a medium of global communication across borders and demographics, emphasising on its universality. This is the World Emoji Day significance.
5 World Emoji Day Facts
- Shigetaka Kurita invented the concept of emojis way back in 1990 for the Japanese telecom company NTT Docomo.
- Mobile phone companies like SoftBank mobiles (now known as Vodafone Idea in India), au, NTT DoCoMo were the first to create the pictorial characters.
- The Japanese word “emoji” is derived from the letters “e” that means picture and “moji” that implies character.
- Emoji Day celebrates the existence of emojis that started being used in Japanese mobile phones.
- There is a roster of more than 1,000 emojis or emoticons, as they were called back in 2007, and have kept evolving since then in terms of their appearance.
4 World Emoji Day Celebration Ideas
1. Social Media Campaigns
Social media activities are planned where global citizens are asked to participate in, align with various other emoji-themed challenges with suitable hashtags. Not just that, contests, quizzes and other fun activities are also hosted to make the Emoji Day fun for digital communicators and test their general knowledge about the significance of various emojis.
2. Emoji-Themed Parties
Celebrate the day in the company of your loved ones by hosting an emoji-themed party at home. Decorate your home with emoji-props and wear a mask of your favourite emoji to get into the groove. Or, if you guys are outdoorsy, you can go over to a restaurant that you know is organising an emoji-themed party. And don’t miss out on playing fun games to keep the party alive.
3. Creative Pursuits
Give wings to your creative thoughts by making an emoji cake or getting it done by a baker. Don’t forget to wear emoji-laced clothes and accessories to get into the mood of the day.
4. Host A Competition
Organise an awards ceremony and come up with ideas for new games related to emojis – what each of them mean, emojis most used by each one of you, and the like. The prizes can be like “Most Popular Emoji”, “Best Dressed Emoji”, and similar ones. To make the awards show more interactive and inclusive, let there be a voting process, on the basis of which the awards will be announced.
10 Most Popular Emojis & What They Mean
- 😂 – Face with tears of joy
- ❤️ – Red heart
- 🤣 – Rolling on the floor laughing (ROFL)
- 👍 – Thumbs up
- 😭 – Loudly crying face
- 🙏 – Folded hands
- 😘 – Face blowing a kiss
- 🥰 – Smiling face with hearts
- 😍 – Smiling face with heart-eyes
- 😊 – Smiling face with smiling eyes
Digital communication has gone beyond written words to emojis. It has evolved to being an exciting mode of communication. So use your favourite emojis and communicate your emotions way beyond words can. Happy Emoji Day to you!
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