National Honesty Day
National Honesty Day:
Celebrated annually on April 30th, National Honesty Day encourages the citizens of America to uphold honesty both in their personal and professional lives. It’s a wake-up call to look at how honest we are!
Year | Date | Day | Where |
2022 | 30th April | Saturday | United States |
2023 | 30th April | Sunday | United States |
2023 | 30th April | Monday | United States |
Twitter Hashtags:
#NationalHonestyDay
#HonestyDay
Why Honesty Day?
In this era of Information Technology and Digital Communications, information is available from various sources within seconds from anywhere in the world. We can get in touch with hundreds and thousands of people on the internet easily. But how often do we hear the complete truth and meet people who are honest with us?
And let’s look within ourselves. How honest have we been with our feelings and emotions? How many lies, white lies, and omissions do we make to protect ourselves, or to not hurt other people?
Lying to ourselves, our spouses, parents, children, bosses, colleagues, and authorities have become a scary normal for people today. The line between truth and lie has somehow faded for most of us as we get convinced that it’s for our survival.
Yes, it is difficult to be completely honest, even when you are, you cannot control the outcome of certain events. But let’s think about what happens when we are not honest?
When we lie or omit the truth we hurt people, maybe not in the present but when they happen to stumble upon the truth someday. Today many families, marriages, and friendships are broken because of being dishonest. When you lie, you are constantly in fear of someone finding out the truth and you carry that burden throughout your life.
On the other hand, being honest helps you to show respect to the other person as they deserve to know the truth even if it’s going to hurt them. Being honest with the people around you and especially your spouse and children helps build strong bonds, helps children understand the realities of life from you than from some stranger. Moreover, you feel light-hearted and not stress upon remembering anything because everything you said is true!
Sometimes honesty could cost you many things in life or life itself.
So how then do we be honest? Warren Wiersbe quotes “ Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.”
So then let our truths be told with love rather than harshly and let the chips fall where they ought to!
If you are a Christian it is an encouragement to understand that when we lie we lie against God but there’s forgiveness in Christ. May God help you and give you wisdom and strength, to be honest in everything you do.
This day also is celebrated as prevention to all the lies that have been told in history. It strongly encourages politicians and businesses to be honest in their lives and works.
How Can We Observe National Honesty Day:
- Be honest with yourself
You cannot be honest with others without being honest about yourself. Take time to calmly sit down and get to know yourself. What are your pros, cons, strengths, and weaknesses? Knowing these points will help you understand and accept the real you!
- Be honest with others today
After you have made peace with yourself, it’s time to make some peace with the people in your life. Gently tell the truth about whatever it is that you have been hiding or lying about. And if the truth is upsetting your friends or family give them space and time for the truth to sink in.
- Try learning assertive communication style
We often practice passive, aggressive, or passive-aggressive styles of communication in our daily life. So this Honesty Day does learn the assertive communication style to help you communicate honestly every day in your life without being rash to yourself or others.
- Turn a few pages in history
Search for the greatest lies in history to understand how being dishonest has led to various disasters and the need for honesty today is greater than ever before.
- Become an Ambassador for honesty on social media!
Give Honesty Day a shoutout on social media. You can help friends and family take baby steps towards honesty today. Share some pro tips and encourage honesty among each other today and every day! Use #NationalHonestyDay and #HonestyDay to post on social media today!
Interesting Facts About National Honesty Day:
Here are some interesting facts surrounding Honesty Day!
- As per the University of Notre Dame’s study on people, being truthful improves both your mental health and physical health!
- Once in ten minutes of a conversation, 60% of the people lie as they want to be liked or viewed as competent.
- 52% of psychotherapists suspect their clients lie to them.
- As per an article published in Nature Neuroscience, if we lie often, our brain adapts to it making us lie more and more as we grow
- Research reveals that on average, Americans tend to lie 11 times a week.
- According to Times-Dispatch, Nurses were found to be the most honest people in contrast to salesmen, lobbyists, and members of Congress
- Goldberg gives away honesty awards every year to organizations, companies, groups, and individuals that have been honest!
History of National Honesty Day:
This day was founded by M. Hirsh Goldberg, who was also Maryland’s former press secretary and authored many novels! He came up with the holiday idea when he was researching for his book, The Book of Lies in the early 1990s. 30th April was chosen to celebrate Honesty Day to counter April Fool’s Day on April 1st as the day was all about lying and deception.