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 !
- Answer this question; "What makes, or has made you, happy?" and become a Happiness Agent
- You earn some "Points Of Presence" (POP)
- You invest your Points in the city of your choice
- You spead the Virus of Happiness around the world.
What is the virus of happiness and how it works?
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!
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?
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 makes me happy is that it's raining today instead of a day when the weather's nice.
Arthur , 18 years old, Toulouse (France)
I am getting divorced, my husband prefers men, my 14-year-old daughter is pregnant, I am in love with a 22- year-old man who left for Mozambique, I am jobless, I am walking on air, Life is beautiful, I am alive ! Cool, isn't it ?
Ana , 45 years old, Melun (France)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)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 read Happython in Metro newspaper with my beloved chums every day.
Duggy , 20 years old, Pantin (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)
What makes me happiest is all the little daily pleasures... Why search so hard, look what we have near
Louise , 43 years old, Chicoutimi (Canada)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 holding one of the metro's double doors, while exchanging a smile, and vice-versa.
Pierre , 68 years old, Paris (France)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 to please to my parents so that they are proud of me. Thank you Dad and Mum, I'm madly in love with you!!!
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 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)My happiness has already lasted for a long time. It renews itself every morning when I go to sample a cup of tea in one of the many Parisian cafés. It's a moment of pure joy, I let myself lapse into dreams in the ambiance of the cafes, and I can no longer do without it.
Nicole , 57 years old, Paris (France)
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 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)
What makes me happy is receiving a message that is proof of a pardon granted by a friend...maybe found again.
Thierry , 47 years old, Arradon (France)A particular moment in the summer of 2002 really made me happy. My father and I went fishing to the little river going near my childhood's village, in rocky canyons. He fishes with the hand since he was a little boy and this year I was also successful when I got a fish with my hand. The atmosphere and this moment of complicity both made me reach heaven.
Françoise , 22 years old, Vietri di Potenza (Italie)What makes me happy is little everyday moments like for example : sitting on the edge of a lake and contemplating nature, horsebackriding in the woods, among other examples.
Carine , 32 years old, Granby (Canada)What makes me happy is being at the foot of a mountain or a hill and looking at the summit telling it « Soon !, », then marching on to sweat, breathe, suffer a little, climb up to that summit and tell yourself : « I did it. Thank you ». Just a challenge between you and nature. That's one of the most beautiful things in the world.
Guillaume , 25 years old, Caen (France)
What makes me happy is cracking my toes in bed instead of studying math during that time.
Ronan , 19 years old, Marseille (France)What makes me happy is seeing my reflection in the eyes of my son.
Vincent , 25 years old, Madrid (Espagne)As far as I'm concerned, what made me happy was to meet this great guy who I really love a lot.
Lina , 30 years old, Tigzirt (Algérie)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)What makes me happy is the surge of love that invades my heart in the most numb of her lyrics…
Clément , 20 years old, Lyon (France)My little world makes me happy… I first of all have all my pets: Loulou, Fofinha, Nina, Cleo, Cesar, Micas they are my dogs who, I can assure you, are also very happy with 3400 feet of field and two little houses… My cats: Tigrao, Faisca, Princesa who have 4 little kittens Milady, Aramis, Dartanhan, Portos… My tortoises whose names are: César and Cléopâtre…. My birds in big cage…
Silvia , 23 years old, Pombal (Portugal)What makes me happy is when the people in the metro don't look just at their feet but at each other, and smile.
Axelle , 21 years old, Lille (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!
Chantal , 33 years old, Saint-Léonard (Canada)
What made me happy ? It is probably slight …I met a totally exceptional man on a chat one year and ten days ago (de visu).
Marianne , 38 years old, Liège (Belgique)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 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 being able to hold onto my freedom that I can use again and again.
Anne , 36 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 !!!
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, 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)
Happiness was when my adoptive brother and sister found their biological mother and also the 26th of August when I knew that I was cured of my cancer.
My happiness is complete when I let the metro pass to keep kissing my love on the latform...telling myself that I'll take it maybe the next day or the day after that.
Sandra , 28 years old, Paris (France)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)What makes me happy is the idea of not waking up early in the morning, not taking the bus to school, not working, because studying too much can kill, but I do it anyway, I'm still happy.
Thomas , 15 years old, Aix-en-Provence (France)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)I am learning to develop my ability to « not define » life, to melt into it rather than dominate it… and by so doing… I learn to love… and the more I love… the happier I am every day!
What makes me happy now is to see the people who think of me.
Isabelle , 29 years old, Wavre (Belgique)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 ? Sitting between others, while I feel a little wind on my face and watch the sunset.
Méliza , 19 years old, La Prairie (Canada)What makes me happy is doing little things every day and realizing that those are what bring lots of happiness.
Hélène , 42 years old, Gracefield (Canada)What makes me happy is snakes and when my parents accepted to get one at home.
Valentin , 8 years old, Mons-en-Baroeul (France)The simplest feeling of happiness is to know that someone somewhere loves you.
Edmée , 16 years old, Nabeul (Tunisie)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 to share my newspaper with somebody next to me in the tube that reads over my shoulder!
What makes me happy, it is in the morning when I wake up in my lover's arms and he kisses me lovingly
Olympia , 32 years old, Paris (France)What has made me happy for 30 years is to live with an exceptional woman who is my wife, my friend, my confidante and my mistress all at the same time.
Rida , 55 years old, Sfax (Tunisie)