World Emoji Day (17/07)

July 17 marks the unusual, largely funny holiday – World Emoji Day, dedicated to the extremely popular pictograms, ideograms and emoticons used in the electronic communication system (SMS, forums, chats, etc.) in modern society.

These icons, symbolizing a person’s mood, his emotions, as well as depicting a variety of objects that together can depict even individual life situations, form a so-called graphic language, called «emoji» or «emoji». This is exactly the name of the holiday celebrated on July 17 – World Emoji Day (emoji).

The holiday is unofficial, but its popularity is growing very quickly thanks to the very environment in which the phenomenon to which it is dedicated originated and continues to develop. Two pronunciations of the holiday are related to the Japanese language transcription system adopted in different countries.

Celebrated since 2014, the holiday even has its own website, offering everyone to join the celebration of the day, participating in flash mobs, using social networks and any opportunities provided by the Internet.

The concept of «emoji» is derived from the Japanese words «picture» and «sign, symbol» and literally can be translated as «sign in picture» or «character in picture».

It is believed that the creator of the emoji is Shigetaka (Shigetaka) Kurita –, an employee of one of the Japanese communication companies. He developed an emoji system for pagers in the early 1990s, and from there it migrated to mobile phones and computers.

Initially, the emoji system, available only in Japan, became widespread throughout the world, and even an Emojipedia – online encyclopedia or dictionary explaining the meaning of emoji appeared. The appearance of emoji was associated with the need to present information as concisely as possible, colored by the emotional state of the person transmitting it.

Every year the number of emoji grows, expanding the possibilities for communication through graphic symbols. The use of the same symbol in different contexts can be interpreted differently. Now, for convenience, emoji are collected in groups on the topics: people, animals, transport, food, etc. This is not surprising, since at the time of its appearance there were about 170 badges, and today their number has exceeded 2000 units.

The date July 17 to celebrate Emoji Day was chosen due to the fact that this particular day is displayed on the emoji calendar icon in the iOS operating system.

In addition to the flash mob organized and dedicated to the holiday, every year individual large companies take part in the holiday, holding events of various types. The most famous is the promotion of Pepsi, whose Canadian branch produced products in bottles and cans with images of various emoji for the holiday.

Despite the fact that World Emoji Day does not have official status, it remains to accept the fact that emoji have already become an integral part of people’s communication in the modern world, where this communication is largely carried out through electronic correspondence. Given the coverage of the world through electronic communication channels, it simply makes no sense to think about whether the holiday needs official status.

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