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…
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?
What makes me happy is life... the simplicity of people... their joy of living and the smiles that surround me... I want to be happy with them like with myself... I want to live in the moment without ever forgetting the past that made me grow up so well.
Kalina , 23 years old, Laval (Canada)What makes me happy is seeing my sweetie smile while reading the Happython each day.
Lilou , 21 years old, Paris (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)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 life in general Lots of good things happen to me, like my three boys...
Céline , 33 years old, Montréal (Canada)What makes me happy is seeing my love, who lives in Toulouse, very soon.
Soraya , 28 years old, Bobigny (France)What makes me happy is the shivers I get when I hear a song that moves me.
Cécile , 16 years old, Orleans (France)What made me happy...I'm going to be very original: the birth of my son! When they put him on my stomach and I saw his face for the first time.
Marie , 28 years old, Toulon (France)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)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 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)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 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 is to read every morning the Happython when I'm in class. It puts me in a good mood for all the day.
It's snowing. I didn't drink today (well… yeah, a little). I'm trying to answer your question… happiness ? For me this intense, deep emotion that moves me : I feel that I'm going to go away… I won't tremble anymore… live, that's all. Happiness is knowing that you can go away, happiness is the smile of someone who doesn't know that I'm an alcoholic. Happiness… is thinking that I'm normal. Happiness : being right, loyal, and honest.
Victoire , 28 years old, Paris (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.
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 made me happy was when I could walk again for the first time after my operation, when I had been paralyzed.
Jocelyne , 40 years old, Lourches (France)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)
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.
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 to have a special moment with my friends over an aperitif putting the world to rights.
What makes me happy is seeing her in the morning, brushing her teeth in her robe, her gaze far away. I look at her, and our eyes meet.
Noël , 24 years old, Toulouse (France)What makes me happy is seeing my bunny thanks to the webcam.
Jonathan , 31 years old, Bordeaux (France)What makes me happy is to read every morning the Happython when I'm in class. It puts me in a good mood for all the day.
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 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)
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 now is to see the people who think of me.
Isabelle , 29 years old, Wavre (Belgique)
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 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 is the surge of love that invades my heart in the most numb of her lyrics…
Clément , 20 years old, Lyon (France)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)What makes me happy are those lives I dream of and those dreams I live in.
Raked , 22 years old, Stockholm (Suède)What makes me happy is seeing my love, who lives in Toulouse, very soon.
Soraya , 28 years old, Bobigny (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)For you I am not merely a thing, my happiness is you, Pilou.
Katie , 46 years old, Bruxelles (Belgique)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)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 a warm day with the wind and the blue sky of spring… A day like today.
Lorenzo , 23 years old, Milan (Italie)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 happiest is all the little daily pleasures... Why search so hard, look what we have near
Louise , 43 years old, Chicoutimi (Canada)
What makes me happy ? A bird singing in the morning when I get up.
Thérèse , 47 years old, Charleroi (Belgique)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 makes me happy is thinking of the happy future waiting for me somewhere in the universe.
Isabelle , 21 years old, Toulouse (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 to stop and enjoy a few quiet moments in my very busy life, so I can think of the distance covered, trials, moments of joy, and then I think that life is great!
43 years old, Waremme (Belgique)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 to see that people can work together to overcome difficulty.
Leïla , 29 years old, Sousse (Tunisie)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.
Marcelle , 62 years old, Québec (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 most happy is when I see happy people. That's the reason why I try to make people happy. Sometimes a simple smile is enough…Fortunately there's a universal language that everybody can communicate with: the “language of the heart”.
Maïssa , 21 years old, Tunis (Tunisie)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)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)Just now (apart from my wonderful family) the position of France, Germany, Russia, China and of course Belgium on the crisis in Irak, which shows there is some hope left. It gives me an immense happiness.
Thierry , 34 years old, Grez-Doiceau (Belgique)The day when I had to defend my DES thesis I was really happy because of all the things I had endured achieving the project.
Meriem , 24 years old, Béjaïa (Algérie)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)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)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)I like eating spaghetti and curly lettuce with some surimi, I like cuddles and playing with my friends, it makes me happy.
Olympia , 5 years old, Champigny-sur-Marne (France)
What makes me happiest is the fact that a child can be born from me and that one day I'll have little toes in my belly...
Claire , 22 years old, Montréal (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)