Is World Laughter Day a public holiday?

No. It is an unofficial international observance, not a public holiday, so it is a normal working day with no closures or day off.

Is World Laughter Day the same as the International Day of Happiness?

No, they are different days. The International Day of Happiness is March 20, proclaimed by the UN in 2012, while World Laughter Day is the first Sunday in May, created by Dr. Madan Kataria in 1998.

Who started World Laughter Day?

Dr. Madan Kataria, a Mumbai physician, created it in 1998. He had founded the Laughter Yoga movement three years earlier, in 1995.

How do you celebrate World Laughter Day?

People gather in parks and public squares to laugh together in group sessions, often through a local Laughter Yoga club. The sessions use intentional laughter and breathing rather than jokes.

Does laughter actually improve your health?

The evidence is mixed and still preliminary. One 2023 review reported lower cortisol from spontaneous laughter but rated the evidence moderate to low quality, and reviews of Laughter Yoga specifically have rated the evidence low and inconclusive.

What is Laughter Yoga?

It is the practice the day grew out of: intentional group laughter combined with yogic breathing, founded by Dr. Madan Kataria in 1995. The movement now reports clubs in more than 120 countries.

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World Laughter Day

An international wellness observance on the first Sunday in May built around public group laughter for health, happiness, and goodwill.

Sunday

May 2027

Last updated March 19, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team

Have an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEFirst Sunday in May

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYHealth

SUBCATEGORYSelf-Care

ORIGIN

Individual Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Dr. Madan Kataria

FIRST OBSERVED

1998

“Dr. Madan Kataria created World Laughter Day in 1998 as "a positive manifestation for world peace," first held in Mumbai.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A peace campaign that happens to be funny.

World Laughter Day was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, the Mumbai physician who founded the global Laughter Yoga movement in 1995. He framed the day as "a positive manifestation for world peace," and the first observance was held in 1998 in Mumbai. It is now marked on the first Sunday of May.

View Laughter Yoga Recordvia Laughter Yoga International

INTRO

The peace movement that asked you to laugh on purpose

PHOTO

World Laughter Day was not invented to be funny. The physician who created it pitched it as "a positive manifestation for world peace", with a stated mission of health, happiness, and goodwill through laughter. The comedy is almost beside the point.

The ritual is stranger than the name suggests. On the first Sunday of May, people fill parks and public squares to laugh together with strangers, on command, with no jokes and no comedians involved. The laughter is the exercise, not the reaction to anything.

Underneath the fun sits an open question. The movement treats laughter as something close to medicine, yet the research on its health benefits is genuinely unsettled, more promising than proven. That tension, a wellness ritual reaching for science that has not quite caught up, runs through the whole day.

ORIGINS

World Laughter Day history

INTRODUCTION

The story does not start with a holiday. It starts with a doctor who ran out of jokes.

In March 1995, a Mumbai family physician named Dr. Madan Kataria gathered four people in a public park to try an idea: a club built around laughing. He had his wife, Madhuri, and three friends. Five people, no audience, no act.

CHAPTER 01

The jokes ran out fast

The group opened by telling jokes, and that worked for a while. Then the material dried up. Rather than quit, Kataria made the move that defined everything after: he dropped jokes entirely and switched to laughter as a physical exercise, paired with yogic breathing.

The premise he settled on is bold and very much his own. In the movement's words, "the body doesn't know the difference between real and simulated laughter", so forced group laughter is held to do the same work as the spontaneous kind. That claim belongs to Kataria and Laughter Yoga, not to settled science.

CHAPTER 02

A practice becomes a day

The clubs spread, and in 1998 Kataria gave the idea a calendar. He created World Laughter Day and held the first one in Mumbai. By the movement's own account, the inaugural session drew 12,000 laughter-club members to a single mass session.

He did not frame it as comedy. He framed it as peace work, a way to "build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter." The day later settled on the first Sunday of May.

CHAPTER 03

From a park to a world record

In 2000, the day left India for the first time. An event dubbed "HAPPY-DEMIC" drew more than 10,000 people to Copenhagen's Town Hall Square and entered the Guinness Book of World Records.

The practice underneath it kept spreading across continents, carrying with it the holiday that started with five people in a park.

TIMELINE

Timeline

First laughter club opens

Dr. Madan Kataria starts the first Laughter Club in a Mumbai park with five people, launching the practice he calls Laughter Yoga.

World Laughter Day created

Kataria creates the day and holds the first observance in Mumbai, framed as a manifestation for world peace.

Copenhagen sets a record

The first observance outside India draws a reported 10,000-plus people to Copenhagen and enters the Guinness Book of World Records.

A separate happiness day

The UN proclaims March 20 the International Day of Happiness, a different observance often confused with this one.

Cortisol study published

A PLOS One review reports a 31.9 percent drop in cortisol from spontaneous laughter while rating the evidence moderate to low quality.

BY THE NUMBERS

World Laughter Day by the Numbers

1998: Year the day was founded
12,000: Members at the first 1998 event (movement's figure)
10,000+: Crowd at 2000 Copenhagen record event
120+: Countries with Laughter Yoga clubs
31.9%: Cortisol drop in one 2023 review (low/moderate evidence)

Test your knowledge

How well do you know World Laughter Day?

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Who created World Laughter Day?

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love World Laughter Day

EVIDENCE

Promising, not proven: the science here is real but still thin.

One 2023 review found spontaneous laughter cut cortisol by about a third, though it rated the evidence moderate to low quality. The day keeps a genuine but unsettled health question in front of a wide audience.

FOCAL

It gives a scattered practice one shared date

Laughter Yoga clubs meet on their own schedules in dozens of countries, in person and online. World Laughter Day pulls that loose network onto a single annual date, turning isolated sessions into one visible, collective moment.

PRACTICE

It treats laughter as something you do, not get

The day spreads an unusual idea: that laughter can be a deliberate group exercise rather than a reaction to comedy. That reframing, paired with breathing, is what people gather in public to practice.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate World Laughter Day

Gather in a park to laugh together

Find or organize a public laughter session in a park or square, the way clubs mark the day worldwide. The point is shared, deliberate laughter, no jokes required.

TRY

Try a Laughter Yoga session

Look up a club through Laughter Yoga International and join an in-person or online group. Most sessions combine intentional laughter with simple breathing exercises.

TAKE

Take a light, no-pressure approach

Spend a few minutes seeking out things that genuinely make you laugh, from a comedy clip to a friend. Mayo Clinic notes laughter has real short-term effects, while being honest that long-term benefits are still only possible.

Share goodwill in the day's spirit

Use the day to pass on small kindnesses, the "unconditional love, laughter, kindness and compassion" the founder describes. It keeps the observance's peace-and-friendship intent at the center.

HOST

Host a session for your group

Run a short laughter session at work, school, or a community center and invite people to take part. Keep it inclusive and voluntary, since the practice depends on the group laughing as one.

Answer

It falls on the first Sunday in May each year, so the exact date moves. The 1998 founding date was anchored only to the year and the city of Mumbai, not to a fixed calendar day.

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