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 when my boyfriend tells me he loves me.

What made me happy Tuesday was seeing my cashier at the supermarket.

Claude , 35 years old, Rosny-sous-Bois (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

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 being able to hold onto my freedom that I can use again and again.

Anne , 36 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is seeing my girlfriend after two or three days when we haven't seen each other and she has a smile on her lips... That means we aren't going to confuse ourselves.

Karim , 22 years old, Meaux (France)

What makes me happy is freedom of thought and see how deep and creative and generous people can be when they are free.

Poly , 29 years old, Paris (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 having discovered Happython planet ! and sharing my happiness with others. I have hope for the best days.

Sandra , 27 years old, Paris (France)

Brought up and educated in Brazzaville, The Congo, by missionaries. A war has broken out... Everything is destroyed, the town devastated, there is nothing to be found anywhere. However with courage the sisters go back to work, open the nursery and primary schools without any materials. They send out an SOS to ex-pupils of which I am one. Since that time I am running around the shops with my limited means of a retired person. Paints, folding books, etc. etc.... meetings with the people who will carry my packages to Brazza. And in return I receive letters and drawings from little children thanking me and calling me godmother and sometimes mother, this is happiness !!!

Exposition citatine

Up until now nothing that I have accomplished or created in my life is worth mentioning compared to that freedom I have acquired through the fact of doing nothing to accomplish, change or improve anything in the world, including myself

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)
Exposition citatine

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

Cécile , 16 years old, Orleans (France)

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)

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

Marcella , 37 years old, Cagliari (Italy)

Giving birth to my two children made me happy.

Joëlle , 44 years old, Liège (Belgique)

What made me happy is that my best friend came with her boyfriend and offered me to go out to take my mind off things because I had just been chucked.

Valérie , 21 years old, Liège (Belgique)

Hearing that a friend is expecting a baby makes me happy.

What really makes me happiest is seeing happy people around me, and what makes my heart smile is sharing my happiness with others.

Suzie , 31 years old, Candiac (Canada)

What makes me happy is seeing my girlfriend in the morning on the train tell me « until tonight, my love, » and then leave listening to Chuck Berry singing « Johnny B. Goode. »

Raphaël , 20 years old, Paris (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

What makes me happy is the ability I have to express myself in any languages, even if that is not the spoken language, but by gestures or feelings.

Claudia , 23 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy ? To create.

Jacques , 68 years old, Paris (France)

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 know that I am the artist of my life ! Happiness exists provided I really want.

Christophe , 34 years old, Neuville-en-Ferrain (France)

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...

What makes me happy …To share a meal and an evening with friends.

Mado , 43 years old, Verviers (Belgique)

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 made me happy is an angel on the web who gave me a lot of happiness and love and I can't forget…

Marlène , 55 years old, Liège (Belgique)

I am most happy when people thank me for holding the door for them on the metro. I leave with a lively step to the RER A.

Sylvie , 38 years old, Rueil-Malmaison (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is when in the dreams' fall when the breath of the day raises my eyelids, I'm aware that the moment when finally I'll be free is close. Every minute, every second that goes by is a step towards our reunion, my darling, my Night, my life.

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

Exposition citatine

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 made me happy was when I played my first notes on the guitar a few months ago. So far I believed music was not for me.

Caroline , 21 years old, Namur (Belgique)

I'm a naturally happy person because I've learnt to see only the nice and positive side of what happens.

Mustapha , 56 years old, Oran (Algérie)

What makes me happy is spending time with my friends, going out with them, sharing my deepest thoughts with them and feeling their trust.

Fabrice , 18 years old, Marseille (France)

What makes me happy is to have a special moment with my friends over an aperitif putting the world to rights.

The day I decided to take myself by the hand again (I was quite depressed) made it so that, during this time, life itself made me happy...

Marie , 23 years old, Thetford Mines (Canada)

Happiness for me is to get miraculously cured of my disease.

Raynald , 50 years old, Roubaix (France)

What makes me happy is people who return my smiles and especially grannies, babies and good-looking

Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is nature. Walking in the grass or on a beach, lying in fields, watching the sunset, picking wild leeks to make an omelette with them.

Lorenzo , 22 years old, Paris (France)

When something wonderful appears in my life. Coincidences, signs, dreams which become reality with the impression that it's life which is organizing everything, lucid dreams.

Exposition citatine

My grandfather's eyes that sparkled whenever he saw me arrive. The wind that strokes my face, the sun that warms up the heart and finally, just feeling alive!

What made me really happy? The first time my son smiled directly at me.

Nathalie , 30 years old, Saint-Hyacinthe (Canada)

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)

What makes me happy? The sun, books, wine, when I have a good idea, a good conversation

Yesterday at work, I thought myself the black beast and eight girls offered me chocolate. I live in Japan, and, here, it's the women who offer chocolate to men. My day had started very badly, and finished very well…

Benoît , 25 years old, Tokyo (Japon)

Financial independance gives me a peace of heart and a certain serenity and the fact of being loved comforts me. Loving a man and receiving love makes me forget my worries and brings me pleasure.

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.

I'm happy when I travel !

Boudriss , 38 years old, Mantoue (Italie)
Exposition citatine

The light and sparkles in children's eyes sometimes make me feel like crying with happiness.

Sabrina , 27 years old, Mitry-Mory (France)

Happy to hear you smile...

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

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)

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

Myriam , 19 years old, Longjumeau (France)

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)

What makes me happy is thinking about what's going to make me happy later. When I get my car, a job I like, so that I can fulfill my passion and live with the woman I love and who loves me too. My happiness is living free.

Davy , 16 years old, Saint-Laurent-du-Var (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)

I am happy when I can make a date with a very good-looking girl.

Micka , 22 years old, Lyon (France)

I love to feel that boundaries don't exist here, smiles are the same everywhere, they can be exchanged in every language… that makes me happy.

Amandine , 21 years old, Madrid (Espagne)

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)
Exposition citatine

What made me happy was to meet, totally by chance, the man who is now my husband. Thanks to fate, every day is a happy day.

Ghania , 27 years old, Alger (Algérie)

What makes me happy is to create as many problems as possible.

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

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

Lilou , 33 years old, Montréal (Canada)

What makes me happy is holding one of the metro's double doors, while exchanging a smile, and vice-versa.

Pierre , 68 years old, Paris (France)

The day I passed my driving license I was really happy because I had always thought I was useless

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)

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

Hazar , 26 years old, Tunis (Tunisie)

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)

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 makes me happy is the day when my mother told me that she was happy to have a daughter like me.

Kadi , 18 years old, Madrid (Espagne)
Exposition citatine

What made me happy lately was to hear that I was pregnant after so many fruitless attempts.

Christine , 35 years old, Liège (Belgique)

Laughing and playing with my son and swimming in the ocean

Tracey , 43 years old, Cowes (Australie)
Exposition citatine

I no longer remember exactly when, But it was approximately in 1996 that I decided to “do something with Internet” It took me until April 1997 to get together the equipment, the connections and the supplies, but then bang, I saw photos of people far away appearing before my eyes, with immediacy of connection and of memory. Wow. For each question I had to do with actual things, ideas or sources of ideas, or how to do something, etc. etc. I could find the reply in a few minutes, and that's when I realised: One doesn't need to know how to reach one's goal before one has decided it - simply dream it and the answers to how you can succeed are on Internet – even if you wish to work towards an enlightened planetary civilisation…

What makes me happy is to listen to Danièle's music, dance the tarentelle and tammurriata and sing with my friends (especially napolitean songs).

Anna , 45 years old, Naples (Italie)

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.