What is World Laughter Day?
World Laughter Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year, and was first celebrated in 1998; World Laughter Day 2025 is on 4th May and it originated as a part of the Laughter Yoga movement by Dr Madan Kataria, who theorised that people’s facial expressions play a significant role in improving their emotions. It is also a manifestation of world peace that brings you closer to the people you laugh with.
Remember that dialogue, “I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English – because English is a very funny language”? Well, it turns out that laughing is very easy too – even babies (as young as 17 days old) can do it!
Benefits of Laughing
Besides making you feel good and light, laughter also has medically proven benefits that impact you long-term. That’s why Laughter Yoga is really a thing! But before talking about that, let’s see its benefits:
- Improves immunity.
- Helps blood sugar levels.
- Beats stress and almost makes you feel like you’re jumping on clouds.
- Burns calories; just 5-10 minutes of laughing daily can burn over 40 calories.
- Elevates your mood – scientifically proven! (Even if you’re annoyed at a colleague or frustrated by something your child did, forcing yourself to laugh will ease all worries.)
- Improves sleep (laugh like a baby, sleep like a baby!)
- Age-related: improves memory in 60-70 year olds, and enhances blood flow in 20-30 year olds. So yes, watching more comedy movies at any age will definitely improve your quality of life.
Laughter Yoga
Visualise: Registering for Habuild’s 14 day free yoga online classes and joining Thursday’s session – core and laughter! A Zoom meeting filled with enthusiastic yoga practitioners, laughing their hearts out and coming one step closer to their fitness goals. Sounds interesting and fun, right?
Now imagine doing it every single week… sounds AWESOME, right? Habuild is not just yoga sessions daily; it’s a community dedicated to improving their health, one day at a time, and living peacefully (with the occasional laughter sessions to liven things up, of course). Okay, enough promotion, now it’s time to learn about this comedic yoga style.
Let’s get one thing straight: laughter yoga is the most enjoyable form of self-care you can do without needing any equipment (unless funny cat videos and iconic stand-ups count). It’s one of the most low-key exercises and takes care of most health-related issues; whether it’s the stress bothering you and raising cortisol levels, or a gloomy mood that has taken away your productivity.
Laughter yoga invites happy hormones (scientifically known as endorphins) into your stressed body and cleans up all worries that make you feel heavy and like the main character in a black-and-white tragedy film.
The science behind laughter yoga is this: laughing without reason is still laughter. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a genuine laugh and a pretend laugh – so basically, fake it till you make those “LOL”s a reality, off-screen. Sure, laughing without a joke might feel weird at first, but 2 minutes in, and you’ll be laughing as if someone accidentally fell off a chair.
World Laughter Day Celebration
We all know that “a big fat Indian wedding” is not a phrase without examples to support it; the Ambanis did not invite all of Bollywood and most of Hollywood “just for fun” – it’s an Indian tradition to do everything grandly. So World Laughter Day 2025 is no small feat either; it calls for the best of comedy movies, the world’s funniest stand-up comedy clips, and of course, happy little accidents among friends (like sipping garam sambhar too fast and almost burning your tongue), in which no one is harmed.
Here are some dhamakedaar ideas for your World Laughter Day celebration:
1. Host a Meme-athon:
No, it does not involve running or jogging or “fast-walking.” Just invite your funniest family and friends to a Zoom call and show off your best meme collections. To make it more competitive, you can even set up a theme (like “Everyday Fails that Might Embarrass You but Burn Someone Else’s Calories” in which you can use memes like the one below.) Bonus: the one who gets the most people laughing hardest gets a “World Laughter Day 2025 winner” award!
2. Time Travel to the 90s-00s
Not literally, but cinematically. It’s time to use OTT platforms to catch up on the old Bollywood comedies you had forgotten about; think of Hera Pheri and Welcome, or any movie in which Paresh Rawal does some naturally comedic acting.
3. (Try Not to) Laugh Challenges
Recently, Gen Z have been asking their parents to read out some Gen Z “slangs” (words they universally use as part of the Gen Z dictionary) while the children hold water in their mouths. The challenge is not laughing as their moms try to pronounce words that don’t make sense (to them, at least).
One tiny problem: this trend always ends in a wet floor and Gen Z kids laughing while holding their stomachs so hard that they fall on the floor. But, there are other enjoyable trends that also keep you dry. Try them out for some family bonding!
Conclusion
Laughing without jokes might seem slightly weird initially, so let World Laughter Day be your excuse to chill out and laugh as much as you want. You can celebrate many ways, not just on World Laughter Day, but every Thursday, by joining Habuild’s 14 day free online yoga classes and every day at work (schedule a 5-minute Laughter break to relax with your colleagues!)
So this World Laughter Day, laugh not just to feel good, but also to boost immunity and blood sugar levels. Learn to let go, giggle randomly, embarrass yourself a little, and get your friends to join in as you laugh your way into a stress-free life. Once again, happy World Laughter Day! Keep laughing!
