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?

The day when my son was born was a day full of happiness.

Malek , 40 years old, Alger (Algérie)

To see my rabbit smiles thanks to the web cam on the net (!).

Exposition citatine

I was never as happy as I was two days ago when, opening the small package my love had nervously given to me, I discovered a pair of tiny shoes. I then understood that we were going to have a baby.

Emmanuel , 29 years old, Paris (France)

What made me happy was leaving for Bordeaux.

Lisa , 19 years old, Madrid (Espagne)

I found a job after a long laborious search and that made me happy.

Mariem , 23 years old, Agadir (Maroc)

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

Nothing makes me happier than to create something with my own hands, to prepare some tempting meal that we can all share together later, or to sew cushions myself. There is a magic in creating, making, concocting something with ones own hands. It is a proof that our hands are just an extension of our thoughts.

For a very long time I have wanted to play a musical instrument while avoiding the forbidding aspect of learning the solfeggio. By some wonderful chance, I saw a photo of a man. Playing the tampoura in the desert, the flash !

What makes me happy is to love and be loved

Safae , 22 years old, Meknès (Maroc)

Tomorrow's day is already making me happy.

Julie , 23 years old, Marseille (France)
Exposition citatine

What made me happy was seeing that people haven't yet forgotten Ingrid Bettancourt and her thousand-day-detention, November 19, 2004.

Hervé , 20 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is meeting passionate people. They always lend me an admiration like an imprint of their ardor, of their taste for life and love.

Carole , 27 years old, Lyon (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

The happiest day of my live was when I left the hole I was hidden in for a month during the war in Rwanda. That day, the sun shone like it will no longer and the breeze was a caress that no man has ever given me. It was June 21, 1994 around 3 :00 p.m. I was 14.

Prisca , 26 years old, Brunoy (France)

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 girls.

Hicham , 18 years old, Errachidia (Maroc)

Most importantly a woman in my life and then my studies that have made me the person I am now.

Ahmed , 50 years old, Oran (Algérie)

What makes me happy is making up with a colleague ! ( a little daily pleasure)

Christian , 44 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is getting online at noon each day on one of the computers at med school with Celine and Arthur to leave messages on Happython !

Carole , 18 years old, Toulouse (France)

What makes me happy is that everybody is fine.

Catherine , 18 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy ? The successful moments, the nice memories from my childhood.

Samia , 24 years old, Nabeul (Tunisie)

To feel loved by my surroundings and to be able to return that love makes me happy.

Maria-Selva , 26 years old, Madrid (Espagne)
Exposition citatine

All my travels.

Cécile , 34 years old, Gosselies (Belgique)

For you I am not merely a thing, my happiness is you, Pilou.

Katie , 46 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

What makes me happy is running with people who are going to miss their train: not because I want to catch the train, but just for the pleasure of running and being out of breath...

Mélanie , 22 years old, Paris (France)

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.

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)

What makes me happy is eating calamari beignets in the university restaurant.

Lora , 18 years old, Versailles (France)

What makes me happy is that when I walk in the street, my steps are exactly as long as the bands on the crosswalk. I feel like I'm in harmony with my environment

So , 22 years old, Levallois-Perret (France)

Smelling the aroma of the pizza that's baking in my oven and thinking that I'm going treat myself !

Mary , 21 years old, Aix-en-Provence (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is getting up on Sundays to prepare breakfast and going back to my bedroom to find my man rolled up in the blanket, like a spring roll.

Karine , 31 years old, Caluire-et-Cuire (France)

What makes me happy is meeting passionate people. They always lend me an admiration like an imprint of their ardor, of their taste for life and love.

Carole , 27 years old, Lyon (France)
Exposition citatine

Walking barefoot and feeling the sun under my feet.

Mary , 21 years old, Aix-en-Provence (France)

What made me happy was to make a break in my job in order not to work any longer, to decide to care about myself and now to give priority to my happiness.

Béatrice , 51 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

What makes me happy, today, is seeing a magnificent carpet of dead leaves at the foot of a tree and hearing a bird singing on the bare tree.

Jacqueline , 79 years old, Lille (France)

Freedom makes me feel happy.

Mahi , 28 years old, Alger (Algérie)

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 seeing my reflection in the eyes of my son.

Vincent , 25 years old, Madrid (Espagne)

What makes me happy, you see, is that I live fully in the present moment. I savor each minute with pure delicacy, that's all!

Isabelle , 28 years old, Drummondville (Canada)

I have just come out of a coma. Here it is : happiness is to be alive again.

Laura , 38 years old, Lille (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

What makes me happy is to be with a friend and with the kids.

Anna , 45 years old, Naples (Italie)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is when my husband tells me “I love you more than my life!”

Magalie , 23 years old, Marrakech (Maroc)

What makes me happy is the feeling of a smile!

Emmanuelle , 27 years old, Marseille (France)

I am happy when I am loved for what I am.

Marcella , 37 years old, Cagliari (Italy)

What makes me happy is to think every morning when I read the happython, that I'm not the only one to think that way

What makes me happy is knowing that I am loved for who I am and that fills my heart with emotion to have tears of it in my eyes ! Then I understand that life is more than magic. Thanks to life.

Petrouchka , 21 years old, Marseille (France)

A kind of happiness that will never pass away is giving birth to a child, it is the most beautiful happiness to my mind.

Evelyne , 46 years old, Namur (Belgique)

What made me happy was to spend my birthday evening with my son and his girlfriend, and tomorrow it will be the same with my sister and her husband. Hurray for the family!

Josette , 52 years old, Saint-Nicolas (Belgique)

To take the time to eat in a fine restaurant in Marseille and to savour the different meals…

Exposition citatine

I was never as happy as I was two days ago when, opening the small package my love had nervously given to me, I discovered a pair of tiny shoes. I then understood that we were going to have a baby.

Emmanuel , 29 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is the idea that people would learn to love each other, without any feeling of racism. The world is everybody's…

Hilm-Lamiae , 35 years old, Fès (Maroc)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is to be loved by the man of my life, a loving Canadian that fate put on my way.

Christelle , 25 years old, Nivelles (Belgique)

lived my greatest happiness after having gone through a period of depression. I walk outside and I kneeled before the color of the starry sky and I told myself: God it's beautiful!

Yann , 35 years old, Toulouse (France)

This is great !! The virus of happiness !! I'd like to give you my own definition of happiness... : “Happinees is like a butterfly. If you run after it, it will escape... But if you let it be, it will land softly on your shoulder...”

Louise , 42 years old, Chicoutimi (Canada)

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 seeing all the different colors and ethnicities in the metro when I run errands in the morning…

Mathieu , 22 years old, Toulouse (France)

What makes my happy is that , currently, I only come across friendly people : the optician and her manager, the sales assistants of the sporting goods store ,of the hardware store and at the cultural goods (cds, dvds, books and video games) and craft arts stores , and the waiters and cashiers at the chinese restaurant).

Maxime , 28 years old, Amiens (France)

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 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)
Exposition citatine

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

Nadine , 33 years old, Mons (Belgique)

Happy to hear you smile...

Richard , 27 years old, Paris (France)
Exposition citatine

My greatest happiness has been the birth of my two children! One boy one girl:

Marie-Lise , 43 years old, Forestville (Canada)

What makes me feel really happy is to be free to act, speak and realise my dreams.

Hazar , 26 years old, Tunis (Tunisie)

See and have the sun when I get up in the morning!

Sophie , 22 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

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)

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 to be back on the education road.

Daniela , 32 years old, Ancône (Italie)

What makes me happy is when I have the giggles and when I laugh so much so that I have a stomachache… I feel so well after shading tears of laughter.

Breathing everyday and going with the flow of my dailyjourney enjoying a beautiful sunny day and if possible near the sea, the lake or a river.

Monique , 46 years old, Heisdorf (Luxembourg)
Exposition citatine

After going on holidays alone, I come back home and I find my dog. It makes me happy.

Myriam , 19 years old, Longjumeau (France)

I met a person in the metro that made me smile…for no reason and that made me happy.

Sylvano , 24 years old, Madrid (Espagne)
Exposition citatine

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 is going to the Happython site every day, reading the testimonies of people filled with happiness ready to break up the sadness, to put my little foot on the wall, too. That puts sunshine in my eyes for the rest of the day.

Céline , 18 years old, Toulouse (France)

What makes me happy is that, though I am agoraphobic, I have made a great friend Pascale thanks to Internet, and I thank her for having friendly feelings for me.

Julie , 39 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)