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...

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 feeling so small in front of a stormy ocean, smelling the spray on my face : I simply feel content, and I realize the futility of all my little everyday worries.

Soizic , 24 years old, Montréal (Canada)

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)
Exposition citatine

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 makes me happiest is all the little daily pleasures... Why search so hard, look what we have near

Louise , 43 years old, Chicoutimi (Canada)

To travel to Europe to see my brother's son who was born the day before yesterday.

Mohamed-Amine , 19 years old, Casablanca (Maroc)

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 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 …To share a meal and an evening with friends.

Mado , 43 years old, Verviers (Belgique)

What makes me happy : all the young people getting involved in the life of a new family…and those babies continuing life.

Brigitte , 50 years old, Chatellerault (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy: to know that even far away, we can count on friends !

Vanessa , 21 years old, Rome (Italie)

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)
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)

Yesterday it rained, I went for a walk with Deal along the ocean, we took photos of each other, we kissed each other, we laughed, we warmed up in a pub, and we shared a chocolate cake and a cherry tea.

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

Sofiane , 30 years old, Béjaïa (Algérie)

Hugs!

Sophie , 22 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

Just to hear some good news on the radio.

Corinne , 41 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)

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

Jean , 97 years old, Barcelone (Espagne)

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)

Whenever I start to really like a person, I look at them straight in the eyes and I tell them that I love them (which is always true) : the glint that I see shine in their eyes, sometimes only for a fraction of a second, fills me with joy, and I am happy.

Louis , 47 years old, Lyon (France)
Exposition citatine

Someone who is able to listen to you, to have a discussion with you. Also to be able to open your heart to someone who knows about human qualities.

Fathi , 45 years old, Sfax (Tunisie)

What makes me happy is that my annuual medical appointment with my cardiologist was OK, and that even if unfortunately, she leaves the region,, she has found a cardiologist specialized, like her, in congenital hearth disease (my disease), who works in the region where I am move in, whom she knows well, and promised me that he is friendly.

Maxime , 28 years old, Amiens (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

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)

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)

What makes me happy is that each and every day, I live…

Andrade , 52 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

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)

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 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)

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.

Exposition citatine

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)

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

Saadane , 31 years old, Ferdjioua (Algérie)
Exposition citatine

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

Mariem , 23 years old, Agadir (Maroc)

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 shivers I get when I hear a song that moves me.

Cécile , 16 years old, Orleans (France)

Happiness is in my nature, I always say that the sun is shining in my head. What makes me happy is loving life and every day there's always the same intensity inside me.

Hamed , 35 years old, Marseille (France)

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

A woman makes me happy.

Amine , 29 years old, Madrid (Espagne)

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 thinking of the happy future waiting for me somewhere in the universe.

Isabelle , 21 years old, Toulouse (France)
Exposition citatine

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

Kai , 40 years old, Bombay (Inde)

For me, it's the sea that makes me happy!!! When I see it or just even think about it I feel good deep inside. It might be quite trivial but the blue ocean makes me happy.

Mina , 30 years old, Tizi Ouzou (Algérie)
Exposition citatine

It's when a simple look is enough.

Julie , 24 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

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)

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)

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 the generosity of people who support Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun. Finally solidarity doesn't end.

Lulu , 21 years old, Aubenas (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 when you resuscitate a baby and suddenly hear his first cry of life tearing the silence of the room.

Delphine , 24 years old, Paris (France)

What makes me happy is being with my family, spending time together, feeling all of their love, expressing how I feel, telling them, showing them.

Yves , 55 years old, Eragny (France)
Exposition citatine

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)

0n Saint Valentin's night I decided to make love with a 40-year-old man. I was his little princess, I desired him so much that I was afraid. I was trembling. He made love with me as none had ever done . On that night I saw the wolf : happy.

Amira , 25 years old, Paris (France)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy ? Scouting when I was young, then my commitment to a trade-union and a political party, my family – children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and hearing that my great-grandson Guillaume will soon be christened.

Louis , 88 years old, Chatellerault (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 the sunset above the sea.

Andrade , 52 years old, Lisbonne (Portugal)

What makes me happy is to have come study french, start to understand it and eat Korean meals.

Chang-Hun , 23 years old, Bastia (France)

To eat chips makes me happy

François , 23 years old, Calais (France)

Happy to hear you smile...

Richard , 27 years old, Paris (France)

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 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)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is getting up in the morning, stretching out on my sofa and letting the sun warms my bare feet through the window.

Bertrand , 23 years old, Bordeaux (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)
Exposition citatine

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

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

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)

What makes me happy ? To create.

Jacques , 68 years old, Paris (France)

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

Jeanne , 27 years old, Paris (France)

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

What makes me happy ? My dog !

Daniela , 32 years old, Ancône (Italie)

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)
Exposition citatine

My 14 years old son has a very worn stuffed bear and I hadn't been able to find one just like it to replace it. Today, I search online and I finally found it. I order four in advance and I feel like the happiest of all mothers.

Chloé , 22 years old, Reims (France)

What makes me happy is girls.

Hicham , 18 years old, Errachidia (Maroc)
Exposition citatine

What makes me happy is all that is beautiful, pure, frank and honest and that doesn't cost anything because these are the simplest things that are the most wonderful.

Steven , 33 years old, Rivière-du-Loup (Canada)

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)

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)