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17 uplifting memes about kindness to celebrate #WorldKindnessDay

"It takes nothing from a human to be kind to an animal."

via Canva/Photos

World Kindness Day is November 13.

November 13 is World Kindness Day, a global observation emphasizing the need to be kind to one another to thrive peacefully as a worldwide community. The World Kindness Movement first celebrated the day at a 1998 Tokyo conference and has spread worldwide for 26 years.

If you missed celebrating on the 13th, don’t worry. World Kindness Week is celebrated through November 18. But, of course, we can all be kind every day, can’t we? Whether to our friends and family, strangers, animals, or ourselves, a commitment to kindness can make a huge difference in everyone's life.

Why does kindness matter?

Studies have shown that people who engage in regular acts of kindness report higher life satisfaction and overall happiness. They also have reduced symptoms of depression and improved mental well-being. The great thing is that an act of kindness doesn’t stop there. Studies show that acts of kindness can have a ripple effect and spread like wildfire.

World Kindness Day even got the folks on X, known for salty barbs and controversial political takes, to calm down and think about what really matters in life. Here are some of the most uplifting posts made under #WorldKindnessDay.

Be kind because you never know what other people are going through.



#WorldKindessDay is a great reminder to make kindness your purpose in life.



Small acts of kindness for others can make a difference.



#WorldKindnessDay is a great reminder to be kind to animals and care for the environment so they can thrive.


Mr. Rogers knew a thing or two about kindness. How can we use his example to bring more kindness into the world?



Remember to be kind to yourself.


People didn’t just celebrate World Kindness Day on X. Krispy Kreme put its money where its mouth is by giving away free boxes of a dozen Original Glazed donuts to the first 500 customers at select locations nationwide. “We hope that each dozen Original Glazed doughnuts we give away enables and inspires many dozens of small acts of kindness,” Dave Skena, Krispy Kreme’s Global Chief Brand Officer, said in a statement.

Tom Cledwyn of London, England, is also putting his money on the line for World Kindness Day. He encourages people to start conversations with strangers at the city’s shops, bus stops, tube stations—and even urinals. If they happen to speak with the right stranger on World Kindness Day, they could win £25,000 ($32,000) in cash. His goal is to push back against the stereotype that Londoners are unfriendly.

"There is a sense of injustice Londoners feel about being labeled as unfriendly," Cledwyn said, according to The Mirror. "All they have to do to prove the world wrong is to talk to strangers for the day. Spending a moment or your time to acknowledge and engage with someone is the simplest form of kindness there is. Everywhere needs more kindness right now. In that respect, London is no different to anywhere else."

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'1-4-3 Day': Pennsylvanians celebrate kindness in honor of Mister Rogers and his favorite number

via Wikimedia Commons

Fred Rogers and King Friday.

The number 143 was very special to Fred Rogers. To the star of “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,” it meant, I love you. “It takes one letter to say I and four letters to say love and three letters to say you. One hundred and forty-three,” he was fond of saying.

He even tried to maintain the weight of 143 pounds by swimming every day at a pool in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Three years ago, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf declared May 23, the 143rd day of the year, to be 1-4-3 Day in the state, celebrating Rogers’ commitment to kindness. “Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person,” Rogers once mused.

Rogers grew up in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and his television show was produced at WQED Pittsburgh.

The governor’s office recommends that the state’s residents celebrate in three ways:

  1. Embrace the spirit of the kindest Pennsylvanian, Fred Rogers
  2. Do something kind for your neighbors
  3. Spread the love by using hashtag #143DayInPA

via State of Pennsylvania

In its third year, the holiday seems to be catching on, especially in Pennsylvania schools, where one class celebrated by wearing cardigan sweaters, just like Mister Rogers did. It was also celebrated by incarcerated individuals at SCI Laurel Highlands, who raised over $7,000 for Cambria County Children and Youth Services.

Here's how other people celebrated throughout the state on May 23, 2022.

Fred Rogers is one of the most admired Americans of the past century and his message of kindness is sorely needed now more than ever. That’s why some are advocating for making 1-4-3 Day a national holiday so that Rogers’ values will be celebrated in communities across the country.

Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski, co-authors of “When You Wonder, You're Learning: Mister Rogers' Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids,” made a compelling case for 1-4-3 Day becoming a national holiday in Time.

A recent study by Pew Research shows that Americans believe we could use a lot more neighborliness, too.

At a time when Americans' trust in each other and its institutions is waning, 86% of us still believe it can be rebuilt with greater community cooperation. Who better to inspire us to reach that goal than America’s favorite neighbor, Mister Rogers?

While many of us look at Washington for solutions to our country’s problems, so much could be fixed if we simply took action in our local communities. A 79-year-old woman polled by Pew offered a simple but powerful solution to the country’s problems. “Seek common ground that engages as many as possible in the community and organize around a project that addresses that common concern,” she said.

“Mister Rogers' Neighborhood” first aired nationally on PBS in 1968 and just about every child born since was taught about simple human kindness by Fred Rogers. Sadly, some of us have forgotten that lesson as we’ve grown older, so a national 1-4-3 holiday would be a perfect way for every American to reflect on those important values and to recommit to being the neighbors that Mister Rogers taught us to be.


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Hallmark asked Fred Rogers to create a holiday display. His design was peak Mr. Rogers

dreambird/Flickr (left) Matt Hoffman/Unsplash (right)

The world can't seem to get enough of Mister Rogers, and for good reason. In an era of salacious reality television, online trolls, and non-stop political scandals, Fred Rogers remains a pure beam of light and goodness, even 16 years after his passing.

The movie "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" opened to rave reviews Thanksgiving week, and has spawned a slew of stories and articles about the beloved children's television star. But one little-known Fred Rogers story in particular seems perfectly fitting for this holiday season.

RELATED: The first trailer showing Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers is here, and the world can't handle this much goodness

A recent article in the Washington Post tells a story of Rogers being asked to help decorate Hallmark's flagship store in Manhattan during the holidays. In his book, "The Good Neighbor," biographer Maxwell King describes Rogers visiting the store and seeing other famous people's ornate, over-the-top displays. But that was hardly Mister Rogers' M.O. After seeing what others had created, Rogers returned home and designed a display perfectly befitting his person and purpose.

Imagine a clear glass Lucite cube encapsulating a single Norfolk Island pine tree, approximately the height of a child. No decorations. No ornaments or tinsel. Just the simple, bare tree, roots and all. And at the bottom, a plaque that reads, "I like you just the way you are." That was his design.

Oh, Mister Rogers. I know you weren't perfect, but you were pretty darn close.

Fred Rogers didn't just love children; he understood them on a level deeper than most. Millions of us spent a good portion of our childhoods watching him methodically change his sweater and shoes, feed his fish, and take us on the trolley to the Land of Make Believe. We listened to him talk about feelings, about how each one of us is special in our own way. We learned about neighbors and community, about hospitality and support. His show wasn't about teaching kids letters and numbers, but about teaching us how to be whole, compassionate humans.

RELATED: There's a wonderful reason why Mister Rogers always said aloud he's feeding his fish.

He never wavered in the message that every child is capable of loving and being loved. He never wavered in his belief that expressing our feelings was healthy and that children need a safe place to do just that. He never wavered in his humanity or his passionate defense of quality programming for children.

And his conviction that every child was special and worthy of being loved just the way they are was summed up in that simple Christmas tree display. You don't have to do anything extraordinary to be liked. You don't have to dress yourself up in fancy things to be lovable. You don't have to change yourself or be anything other than who you are to be worthy.

Mister Rogers expounded a simple truth that people spend thousands of dollars in therapy to discover, and his gentle way of conveying that message to children made him a hero to so many of us. And the world needs him now more than ever.

Let's keep sharing his legacy through these stories from his life, because every generation deserves the uplifting gift of Fred Rogers.

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Old episodes of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' are streaming. This is not a drill.

In a world gone mad, when war is endless and politics are chaos ... there's only one man who can reassure our troubled souls.

Photo via Everett Collection.

Unfortunately, he's no longer with us (RIP).

Fortunately, we've got a lot of Mister Rogers on tape — and for the next two weeks, you can binge him 24 hours a day.

Twitch, the online video streaming service, is currently marathoning all 866 episodes of "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" in chronological order.

Photo via Everett Collection.

That means you have until June 3 to relive the most soothing, gray sweaterful moments of your childhood.

It's an opportunity every American should be pretty grateful to seize right about now — and it's for a good cause.

The marathon is an effort to raise money for local PBS stations, many of which have trouble keeping their funding levels up.

As of this writing, over $14,000 has been donated.

Periodically, PBS has to fight to survive in the face of apathy and political calls to cut its funding. Now is one of those times.

Photo via HBO.

A budget proposed by the Trump administration in March 2017 would have eliminated funding for the network.

The initial version of the budget did not pass, and PBS remains in on the air for now, but the threat is real for the kind of enriching children's programming that Fred Rogers spent his life making and advocating for.

A 2015 study found that shows like "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" and "Sesame Street" — available to anyone with a TV set for decades — made low-income children who watched regularly 14% less likely to fall behind in school.

"These findings raise the exciting possibility that TV and electronic media more generally can be leveraged to address income and racial gaps in children's school readiness," study co-author Melissa Kearney said in a statement.

48 years ago, Rogers appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications to convince skeptical elected officials to allocate $20 million for public television.

His heart-wrenching, six-minute testimony was key to convincing the lawmakers to provide the funding.

Though Rogers may no longer be with us, this two-week fundraising marathon allows his message of kindness and empathy — broadcast for over 30 years to millions of American children from all walks of life — to speak for itself.

You should check it out — and prepare yourself for a nostalgia-and-classic moment tsunami. In a just world, that would be enough to secure PBS the funding it needs.

Here's hoping.

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