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 to be sitting outside a café with nothing to do but let my mind wander (daydream), sip my drink and watch people walk by.

Catherine , 47 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

Smelling the scent of my children makes me happy.

Mireille , 45 years old, Madrid (Espagne)
Exposition citatine

When I left alone to experience giving up everything, I had the impression that I was happy.

Mihran , 33 years old, Rosny-sous-Bois (France)

What makes me happy is the sunset above the sea.

Andrade , 52 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

What makes me happy is finally being myself in my own eyes and in the eyes of my loved ones.

Didier , 34 years old, Paris (France)

When he holds me in his arms, my head goes “pssshit.”

Angela , 23 years old, Nice (France)

What makes me happy is seeing all the cherry trees blooming in Japan, and telling myself that nothing is more beautiful and nothing pleases us more than this langourous pink…

Alex , 20 years old, Nice (France)

What makes me happy every day, it is to see black slaves'sons and daughters appointed to fairly important positions, in a country where there were schools for Whites and schools for Blacks, buses for Whites and buses for Blacks, just very few decades ago.

Alex , 43 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is wheever I go beach and watch the clouds.

Kai , 40 years old, Bombay (Inde)

What makes me happy is seeing my parents together.

Sarah , 20 years old, Casablanca (Maroc)
Exposition citatine

Cultivating my friendships is what makes me happy.

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

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

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.

Muriel , 44 years old, Lyon (France)

What makes me happy is to have a cat.

Ping , 35 years old, Pékin (Chine)

What makes me happy, even if it may look strange, it is when I drive to work in the morning.

Elodie , 26 years old, Limoges (France)

What made me happy...I was five years old, I wanted a little sister and I got one the day before my birthday. That was my best gift!

Benjamin , 22 years old, Romainville (France)

The day when my daughter Nouha was born, on July 4th, 2004 made me happy.

Saadane , 31 years old, Ferdjioua (Algérie)

What makes me happy is to talk to people and to learn something from them.

Sofiane , 30 years old, Béjaïa (Algérie)

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.

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)
Exposition citatine

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)

Each morning on my way to work, I read the newspaper and I hurry up to read the Happython. Often I find myself in what was said. Today, it's my turn. What makes me happy is going to bed early and waking up late when I don't have to work.

Aline , 45 years old, Villepinte (France)
Exposition citatine

Ce qui m'a rendue heureuse c'est d'avoir eu ma fille.

Sophie , 28 years old, Laval (Canada)

What made me happy is when my boyfriend proposed to me, but also when the Americans demonstrated against war in Irak.

Maud , 21 years old, Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois (France)

My relationship makes me very happy. I really have the impression that I create that every day. What allowed me to live this relationship, was when I started to respect myself and to listen to myself. Of course the other person senses that and naturally comes to you without effort. Afterwards the secret is not to tie the net, not to become a living prison, but on the contrary to open up the space with kind attention and love. Programme for a beautiful relationship: - Respect it – Listen to oneself (and the other too !) – Encourage light thoughts towards the other – Continue as if you were alone - Love the other person tenderly - Have fun together.

An evening between friends, with a little to drink of course. One of them accompanies you back to your taxi, one of the ones with whom you share the same complicity and sensitivity. And on a « goodbye » you steal a kiss from him, instead of an ordinary « see ya soon ». A kiss that lasts for a little while, a kiss he returns. The kind of kiss that makes you smile each time you think about it again and makes you happy.

Aurore , 22 years old, Paris (France)

What made me happy, it is when I was elected Miss France 2003 on december 14, 2002 and my great pleasure was when I saw my mother after that. In her eyes I could see how proud and happy she was. I think it is the most beautiful present I can offer her.

Corinne , 20 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is to have been able to get a good education « educazione » !

Daniela , 32 years old, Ancône (Italie)

What makes me happy is when there is music on the streets or in the metro. It gives me the impression that the quick steps of hurried people are in rhythm on the tempo, like an urban choreography !

Sandy , 19 years old, Toulouse (France)

What makes me happy is telling myself that there are places where everything is simple and less heavy than this place, and that can be here if I want it to be.

Eugène , 21 years old, Dargnies (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy ? The field of grapefruit in pink mornings.

Damien , 24 years old, Lille (France)

What makes me happy at this moment is that I have got rid of everything in Paris, my job and a hard life, to retire and live in Tunisia at a wonderful man's side.

Françoise , 52 years old, Rades (Tunisie)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is sharing my newspaper with a neighbor on the metro who reads it over my shoulder.

Etienne , 21 years old, paris (France)

My cousing Mathilde, 3 and a half years old, was skeptical when we told her, after school, that her little sister had been born during the day. But if you had seen her when she finally met Alice, she was ovewhelmed with joy !!!

Angélique , 23 years old, Chambly (France)

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

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

What makes me happy is that my three and a half year old son gets angry if someone wants to smush an insect or when he asks us to be quiet to not scare a bird.

Marie-Noëlle , 32 years old, Ham-sous-Varsberg (France)

To help people as much as I can makes me feel happy.

Sou , 30 years old, Tunis (Tunisie)

To know that there's at least one person on earth who loves me for who I am, who shares my sad and happy moments and who never gets fed up saying “I love you”.

Khaled , 20 years old, Alger (Algérie)

What makes me happy is seeing that the head of a busy bar can stop working for two minutes because he saw a blind man trying desperately to walk across a crosswalk and help him cross arm in arm… that really make me happy to witness scenes like that ! Long live solidarity between people of all horizons !!

Greg , 20 years old, Nice (France)

What makes me happy is seeing that my best friend is always there, even when things aren't going well.

Maxime , 22 years old, Lyon (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

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…

Exposition citatine

My marriage has made me happy.

Thérésa , 48 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

The thing that makes me happiest is someone's love and people's respect and the world smiling at me.

Stéphanie , 21 years old, Québec (Canada)

Classic happy moment, but true : waking up beside your love… a moment of pure tenderness… you wake from one dream to plunge into another…

Rémi , 23 years old, Lille (France)

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)

A moment of happiness: the kiss from this little girl who thanked me for having cured her mommy. What made me happy yesterday was passing the evening with the man I love, dancing all night with him and showing him that his black skin and my white skin show at the same time both contrast and harmony.

Muriel , 48 years old, Blois (France)

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)

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

Sophie , 22 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

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

I thought it was only possible to die from sadness. But one day I nearly died from happiness when the man I had always loved from afar, but only ever hoped to talk to, came and talked to me. It was the most beautiful day of my life.

Sanaa , 25 years old, Casablanca (Maroc)

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

My happiness is eating my favorite meal: pureed sausage.

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

What makes me happy is to experiment with love.

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 breathing deep and seeing a smile appear on my face while I realize that it's good to live, something I had forgotten for a moment.

Annaïg , 25 years old, Lorient (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 seeing the popcorn head of my love waking up.

Hélène , 30 years old, Lyon (France)

The purest moment of happiness was my fiance's return to France after eight months spent in prison, in Turkey... All that because he had taken some papers! For now, it's my most beautiful moment.

Amélie , 27 years old, Herouville-Saint-Clair (France)

What makes me happy is the beauty of the sky.

Camille , 10 years old, Rome (Italie)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is telling myself every morning, while reading the Happython, that I am not the only one who thinks like this.

Nicolas , 22 years old, Nice (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)
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)

What makes me happy is writing a message to Happython and knowing that one day, maybe, my testimony with help spread the virus of happiness.

Hélène , 20 years old, Toulouse (France)

What made me happy...I was five years old, I wanted a little sister and I got one the day before my birthday. That was my best gift!

Benjamin , 22 years old, Romainville (France)

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)

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

What made me happy: Over, my first boyfriend at school, which I'll never forget.

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)

Lots of things make me happy : I bought an appartment, I slept with a girl and I stopped smoking !

Lolie , 21 years old, Paris (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is thinking through the best moments I've lived to determine which one is the best and thus reliving them.

Kevin , 19 years old, Chatenay-Malabry (France)

My children ‘s smiles make me happy.

Sandrine , 32 years old, Brabant Wallon (Belgique)
Exposition citatine

My most beautiful moment of happiness was when my love, Nuno Filipe, had prepared for me the most beautiful Valentine's day…. We went to the highest place in the region. Without me noticing anything, he took out two crystal glasses of champaign and a red roses bunch where there was a little note: with lots of love. And the best: a ring, a solitaire and the most important, lots of love…

Silvia , 23 years old, Pombal (Portugal)

What makes me happy ? To be a granny, nothing is more beautiful than to see your family grow larger and be able to play the doting mother again. It makes you feel young again.

Liane , 54 years old, La Louvière (Belgique)

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)