Yesterday evening, out to see the lights of Lyon, I found myself in the park of la Tête d'Or, on a path with lights and sounds so surreal…and relaxing ! A real moment of happiness after a day of hard work.

How to propagate the Virus of Happiness?

In fact, it's quite simple !

  1. Answer this question; "What makes, or has made you, happy?" and become a Happiness Agent
  2. You earn some "Points Of Presence" (POP)
  3. You invest your Points in the city of your choice
  4. You spead the Virus of Happiness around the world.

What is the virus of happiness and how it works?

What is Happython?

And how does it work?

About Happython

Happython was founded in 1998 on this simple question: "What makes you, or has made you, happy?".
The answers of many people were printed and then exposed-pinned on clothes dryers called "Porte-Bonheurs".
These exhibitions took place in galleries, public places, post offices and finally on the web.
The idea of a Happening Record of happy moments has germinated: the Happython and the Happiness Virus have been created!
For more than 20 years, tens of thousands of people between the ages of 2 and 109 from all over the world have testified about what makes them happy.
Now it’s your turn!

What makes them or has made them happy?

What makes me happy is being a great-great grandfather.

Jean , 97 years old, Barcelone (Espagne)

What makes me happy is seeing my daughters happy and in good health

Lilou , 33 years old, Montréal (Canada)
Exposition citatine

I'm happy when I'm part of the happiness of the people around me.

Soade , 40 years old, Casablanca (Maroc)

What makes me happy : Luigi who brought me a chocolate egg, only for me !

Vanessa , 21 years old, Rome (Italie)

What makes me happy is girls.

Hicham , 18 years old, Errachidia (Maroc)

Happiness is when I see my mother again, for whom I'll always be the same kid (even if I'm not this kid anymore) and to see her face lighting up and smiling.

Mehdi , 27 years old, Tunis (Tunisie)

What makes me happy is to share my newspaper with somebody next to me in the tube that reads over my shoulder!

What makes me happy is to read every morning the Happython when I'm in class. It puts me in a good mood for all the day.

What makes me happy is to see the smile of people I like and the sunset. It's to hear the voices melody and children laughing. It's to smell flowers perfume and that of hot coffee. It's to feel under my fingers the softness of the skin and the grains of a fine sand beach…

What makes me happy is thinking that I've succeeded in getting out of many decades of abuse by myself. Others will succeed as well.

Gentiane , 56 years old, Bordeaux (France)
Exposition citatine

What made me happy was leaving for Bordeaux.

Lisa , 19 years old, Madrid (Espagne)

What makes me happy is that, despite all the world's problems, there are at least 20318 happy people.

Audrey , 18 years old, Bordeaux (France)
Exposition citatine

The idea of free time makes me happy. Let me explain: life is such that we are always doing something, stressed, running around, always going faster... So, to programme some free time, time to do nothing, is an idea that gives me a real sense of happiness.

So passionate, so tender, to hold me in your arms, kiss me gently and… tu make me fall on the bed ! You are so clumsy, my love, but how I love you, ooof ! I think about it in the metro, and I burst out laughing. I am happy.

Florence , 21 years old, Paris (France)

For me, what makes me happy is accomplishing the tasks I have to do... however small they are... the satisfaction of finished work...

Manon , 36 years old, Laurentides (Canada)

What makes me happy is leaving work on Friday afternoon and walking in Bordeaux for an hour savoring each minute of the beginning of my weekend !

Jean-Steeve , 23 years old, Bordeaux (France)

What makes me happy is that people read the little Happython phrases that I cut out of the newspaper and paste on the walls in my bathrooms. Even Charlotte, who is preschool, sometimes takes more than twenty minutes.

Maïwenn , 28 years old, Champigny-sur-Marne (France)

Oh… little everyday trifles make me happy … a smile, a hand in mine…a look, a laughing child…happiness is very relative…but we must know to appreciate the little things.

Angela , 40 years old, Benidorm (Espagne)

What makes me happy is finding the right temperature of water in the shower right away… I hate cold showers…

Julien , 19 years old, Rennes (France)

What makes me happy is to prepare a good meal when my son comes home.

Jean-Luc , 52 years old, Garde (France)
Exposition citatine

Love!

Ana , 25 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

What makes me happy is after washing my hands, to dry them in the hot air of the hand dryer. That marks a nice pause in my day.

Julie , 20 years old, Lyon (France)
Exposition citatine

My marriage has made me happy.

Thérésa , 48 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

What makes me happy is living the life I've always wanted to live.

Frédéric , 21 years old, Strasbourg (France)

What makes me happy is doing a task that, I feel, fits with me and my personnality.

Anna , 45 years old, Naples (Italie)

What makes me happy is to read every morning the Happython when I'm in class. It puts me in a good mood for all the day.

To feel the blending of warmth and cool in a summer evening, to drink a cool beer, to eat spiced olives, to hear my friends laugh, for me, that is happiness (in summer).

Emilie , 22 years old, Montpellier (France)

What makes me happy is the shivers I get when I hear a song that moves me.

Cécile , 16 years old, Orleans (France)

What made me happy was seeing whales in the distance spitting water, indifferent to the spectators sitting around a fire on this Zipolite beach.

Aude , 28 years old, Lyon (France)

What makes me happy is leaving work on Friday afternoon and walking in Bordeaux for an hour savoring each minute of the beginning of my weekend !

Jean-Steeve , 23 years old, Bordeaux (France)
Exposition citatine

Overall, my friends (boys or girls) are the ones who make me happy, because they're always there for me.

Asma , 37 years old, Rabat (Maroc)

My faith in God makes me feel happy.

Mohamed , 35 years old, Boumerdès (Algérie)
Exposition citatine

I am happy when I travel around the world and get to know different possible ways of being happy.

Marcella , 37 years old, Cagliari (Italy)

What makes me happy is that it's raining today instead of a day when the weather's nice.

Arthur , 18 years old, Toulouse (France)

What makes me happy, hmm... The first is waking up and seeing sunbeams... the second is payday... the third is my last day at work!

Claire , 48 years old, Longueuil (Canada)

What makes me happy is to be healthy.

Daniela , 32 years old, Ancône (Italie)

It's snowing. I didn't drink today (well… yeah, a little). I'm trying to answer your question… happiness ? For me this intense, deep emotion that moves me : I feel that I'm going to go away… I won't tremble anymore… live, that's all. Happiness is knowing that you can go away, happiness is the smile of someone who doesn't know that I'm an alcoholic. Happiness… is thinking that I'm normal. Happiness : being right, loyal, and honest.

Victoire , 28 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is life in general  Lots of good things happen to me, like my three boys...

Céline , 33 years old, Montréal (Canada)

One evening placed on his lower back, I thought about his little round body and I realized how happy I was to be a Daddy.

François , 25 years old, Paris (France)

Seeing my son find his taste for life again makes me really happy !

Marie-Agnès , 45 years old, Montpellier (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happiest is the fact that a child can be born from me and that one day I'll have little toes in my belly...

Claire , 22 years old, Montréal (Canada)

What makes me happy is falling in lovein the metro every morning ! Stranger from line 6, if you recognize yourself…

Julia , 18 years old, Paris (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is to love and be loved

Safae , 22 years old, Meknès (Maroc)

What makes me happy is really knowing that one day I'll have enough power to spread love and happiness.

Meriama , 15 years old, Marrakech (Maroc)

The smile of a child after an X-ray treatment… A baby holding out his hand… All that makes me happy!!

Laure , 34 years old, Blois (France)

What makes me happy is my little 80-year-old mother, who is chock full of joyful projects : she's going to move into a new appartment.

Odile , 45 years old, Renay (France)

My happiness is eating my favorite meal: pureed sausage.

Thomas , 10 years old, Mons-en-Baroeul (France)

What makes me happy is to see happy sports people.

Hythem , 23 years old, Tunis (Tunisie)

The purchase of a house in the country made me happy. It gave me a goal.

What makes me happy is returning home, soaked, during a storm and hearing the rain beating against the windowpanes while I heat up tea!

Elodie , 17 years old, Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happiest is the love of my future husband who, despite leukemia, helps me to get through life.

Lucie , 33 years old, Deux-Montagnes (Canada)

The simplest feeling of happiness is to know that someone somewhere loves you.

Edmée , 16 years old, Nabeul (Tunisie)
Exposition citatine

What made me happy was when she showed me the stars and blew on my neck to warm me up.

Rémi , 19 years old, Ferte-Bernard (France)

What makes me happy is learning that my parents are going to leave for a lover's weekend. After 23 years of marriage, isn't it still really cute?

Pierre , 18 years old, Marseille (France)

What makes me happy is to get up in the morning and think that I'm still there despite the past difficulties.

My job!

Ferhat , 20 years old, Alger (Algérie)

I'm against peoples' oppression and I want them to be free, so I am happy when there is justice on earth,…

Siham , 32 years old, Casablanca (Maroc)

What does make me happy is to watch the waves lapping on the fine sand

Nadine , 33 years old, Mons (Belgique)

What makes me happy is to have a cat.

Ping , 35 years old, Pékin (Chine)

What makes me happy is being in an excellent mood and knowing how to share it with those around me.

Franck , 37 years old, Toulouse (France)
Exposition citatine

Hello everyone, what made me happy this summer was just swimming in the lake with warm sunbeams... letting myself be carried softly away by small waves.I find that that's complete happiness.. it's peace, calm, joy, it's relaxing... it's being happy... and all of that accompanied by my dear husband xxx -ps: the heat is much easier to stand that way hmm...

Sylvie , 35 years old, Marieville (Canada)

My five year old daughter told me : « Mommy, when you die, I will take all my treasures and I will give them to you when you return as a little baby. » That day, I felt a great surge of happiness

Rebecca , 34 years old, Melun (France)
Exposition citatine

It's to seat down at Cais Do Sodré and look at my country.

Ana , 22 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

My wife makes me happy… She helped me to discover what real life is like!!!

Nacer , 34 years old, Chlef (Algérie)

What makes me happy is to have the possibility to organize a great party with all the family where my brother could come with his children.

Chantal , 37 years old, Tervuren (Belgique)

Wednesday afternoon, I visit my grand mother at the old folks home. Our walk in the park brings us closer. Seeing her smile and her joy makes me happy.

What makes me happy is to eat a chocolate filled pastry behind my archi (tecture) teacher's back!!!

A child's spinning top on the carpet. What a pleasure to approach it, having watched it from afar, the memories coming back of those exquisite moments where colours mingled and filled rainbow eyes. I lean over, touch the top and play with it and that simple pleasure warms my heart, it turns, turns, turns...

Just to hear some good news on the radio.

Corinne , 41 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

What makes me happy, a great privelege in my heart, when my little 4-year-old friend, Joey, takes my hand, taking this gesture of love from this child who moves me, but completely... I become gaga with...

Hélène , 51 years old, Shawinigan (Canada)
Exposition citatine

My success (academic with honors) makes me happy.

Mane , 18 years old, Khouribga (Maroc)

What makes me happy is to see this little twig of a woman who is my mother smile and laugh, each time it's…

Heïdi , 21 years old, Villeurbanne (France)
Exposition citatine

I am happy as soon as I get home from the office in the evening and see my child's smile.

Sam , 25 years old, Toulon (France)

What makes me happy is to eat braised fish with my fingers, in the shade of a tree, in the Ivory Coast, and to watch the sunrise on Buttes Chaumont Park.

Aline , 28 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is the sea. When I see it or when I think about it, I am really comfortable in my own being. Oh yes, it's boring but it's the ocean blue that makes me happy.

Mina , 30 years old, Tizi Ouzou (Algérie)