World Hello Day: say hello to someone new this weekend

According to Wikipedia’s World Hello Day article, it is a secular holiday observed every year on 21 November. Taking part means greeting ten people or more, as a way to say that conflicts should be settled through communication rather than force.

The same article says the day began in 1973, founded by brothers Brian and Michael McCormack in response to the Yom Kippur War. We could confirm these details only from that one page; we have not found other details we can check, so we do not add any.

This page is not run by or connected with the day’s organisers. We simply think a greeting is a good excuse to go out. You do not need to reach ten: one hello to a new person counts as a good start.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Hello_Day, read on 3 November 2026. When we fetched worldhelloday.org it led to the same article.

Choose something where the activity gives you something to talk about, and where arriving alone is ordinary.

• Language exchanges: made for talking to new people, usually with a simple structure and a friendly tone.
• Walks: you walk side by side, which makes small talk easier than across a table.
• Board-game nights: slow and friendly, with chat between rounds.
• Book clubs and reading evenings: you already share a topic.
• Free concerts: you listen together and can say hello in the interval or on the way out.
• Pubs and bars: sit at the bar or a small table, order whatever you like (soft drinks are fine) and join a conversation if one opens up.

Check the organiser’s page for day, time, language and booking before you set out. Choose public places, tell a friend where you are, and plan your own way home. We cannot vouch for any event or for who attends.