International Day of Happiness

International Day of Happiness: March 20

International Day of Happiness highlights how actions like embracing mindfulness and practicing gratitude can cultivate meaningful, lasting happiness — even in difficult times. Happiness and hardship can coexist, and by engaging in activities that nurture gratitude, connection, and purpose, we can intentionally foster and sustain a deeper sense of happiness throughout our lives.

Call for Submissions: Happiness Reflected: Creative Expressions Vol. 4

Submission form opens Dec. 1, 2025

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

In observance of International Day of Happiness, the University of Alberta Days of Action committee invites members of the University of Alberta Community to contribute to the fourth annual Happiness Reflected: Creative Expressions by submitting original creative works that reflect their experience of happiness. See below for last year’s podcast and chapbook.

Your submission can be in any textual, visual or audio representation, and incorporate any language. It also needs to be ready to publish, and reproducible in a digital chapbook. It does not need to be new or current work. Up to 20 submissions will be selected and shared back to the U of A Community via several avenues of broadcast and/or publication, as yet to be determined, but possibly including:

  • A print or digital publication for general distribution
  • Posters displayed across all campuses
  • A limited podcast series and/or exhibit/sound installation

We intend to collect creative works to reflect the diversity of thought, voice, and experience of happiness and its tensions. The selection of creative works will shape the project as a whole and will determine the broadcast/publication outcomes.

Eligibility

To be considered for the 2026 Happiness Reflected, your work must meet the following conditions:

  1. Contributor is a member of the University of Alberta Community (student, faculty, staff or alumni).
  2. The creative work is an original piece created by the submitter; we do not consider or review AI-generated material.
  3. The contributor holds copyright ownership (NB: copyright protection in original creative works is immediate and normally held by the creator unless they transfer those rights. So if you created the work, then you likely hold the copyright).
  4. The creative work's content explores subject matter that relates to happiness.
  5. The work is ready to publish.
  6. Contributor agrees to assign a Creative Commons License to their creative work for publication/exhibition/distribution purposes.
  7. We do not consider or review AI-generated material.

If you have any questions about eligibility criteria, please email uaaction@ualberta.ca.

Selection Criteria

The Days of Action Working Group for International Day of Happiness will jury the 2026 Happiness Reflected submissions and are responsible for selecting submissions. A total of up to 20 creative works will be selected by the jury for this project in accordance with the following:

  • Overall originality/creativity: Is the creative work communicating a message that is unique in expression, format, style, etc.
  • Aesthetic appeal of the creative work: Does it draw us into its world? Does it evoke a strong affective response? Is it engaging and/or does it make us want to know more about the perspective of happiness that it portrays? Eg., creative use of language, colour, image, sound, music, etc.
  • Relationship between the creative work and its audience: Does the creative work invite us to relate to its content? Is the message accessible?
  • Alignment with campaign goals: Does the piece welcome us to engage with an understanding of happiness? Does it help us to reflect about our own experience of happiness?
  • Length of submission:
    • For block-form text, i.e., fiction or non-fiction (including excerpts): entries maximum 300 words.
    • For poetry or line-based texts (including lyrics): submission maximum 25 lines including title and stanza/line breaks.
    • Pieces may be lightly edited for format considerations.

Submission deadline

The submission form will open on this website Dec. 1, 2025. The deadline for submission is Jan. 4, 2026. The selection committee will contact all contributors by Jan 9, 2026.

Happiness Reflected

Happiness Reflected: Creative Expressions Collection, Vol. 3

Happiness Reflected is a collection of original creative works from our campus community that Days of Action has curated intentionally for Happiness Day.

Read the chapbook. Immerse yourself in the collection, reflect on the questions throughout to engage with your own experience of happiness, and consider the artist’s intention to deepen your connection to the work.

Happiness Reflected Podcast: Season 3

Listen to Season 3.

This podcast is about reflecting on how to cultivate meaningful happiness in our lives while listening to University of Alberta community members discuss how they explored perspectives of their own happiness in relation to their original poems, stories, visual art and songs they submitted to this project.

Listen to Happiness Reflected at the links below or wherever you find podcasts.

Events

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s Happiness Awards, the rock climbing event, and the Cultivating Happiness: Insights from Mind, Brain, and Beyond workshop. While we develop programming for International Day of Happiness 2026, we encourage University of Alberta community members to engage with the Happiness Reflected chapbook and podcast as well as participate in activities that help them cultivate and sustain lasting happiness.

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama