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ENTITY shares how to celebrate world emoji day.

Do you remember when <3 was the only way you could convey your love for someone via text?

Oh, how the times have changed.

Thanks to emojis, we now have 2,666 little ways of showing someone how we feel. From the kissy face to the poop emoji, there is truly one for every occasion.

Emojis are used so ubiquitously that it seems almost inevitable that someone would create something to honor the little symbols that have revolutionized modern communication.

In the never-ending barrage of social media posts celebrating holidays that definitely seem made-up (we’re looking at you National Something on a Stick Day) that someone would give emojis their own day.

And so that’s exactly what someone did. Thus, World Emoji Day was born.

So what exactly is it?

ENTITY explains world emoji day.

Gif via Giphy

It’s pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be — a day to celebrate everyone’s love for the emoji. It occurs every year on July 17. To celebrate some people host their own parties. Various events take place in cities around the world and some people create emoji art. Take, for instance, this man who composed a song for the holiday.

The Empire State Building changed its lights to emoji yellow in honor of the day last year. Celebrities at the event included Jake T. Austin, Maya Rudolph and Patrick Stewart, all cast members from “The Emoji Movie.” Several cities worked together last year on the holiday to break the world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as emojis. These cities, including Dubai, Moscow, Dublin and Sao Paolo, succeeded in their task.

Who is behind World Emoji Day?

ENTITY explains what world emoji day is.

Photo via Instagram / @jeremyburge

That would be one Jeremy Burge. Burge founded the website Emojipedia, which is essentially an emoji search engine. His job title now is the chief emoji officer at Emojipedia. In 2014, he decided to create an online holiday for the little pictures. Beginning as an online holiday that people would tweet about, World Emoji Day has clearly grown into something much, much larger than Burge could have ever anticipated.

Any reason World Emoji Day falls on July 17?

ENTITY explains what world emoji day is.

Photo via Instagram / @kakez_no_frosting

Funny you should ask — there actually is. Look closely at the calendar emoji. What date shows on it? That’s right, July 17. If you really want to know the origin story of this date, it all goes back to 2002 at the MacWorld Expo. It was there that Apple introduced their calendar app, iCal.

You may not see July 17 on all calendar emojis. Twitter shows March 21 on its emojis, as that is its founding date.

Now that I know the what and the why, how can I join the celebration?

ENTITY explains world emoji day.

Gif via Giphy

There are a ton of ways you can become a part of World Emoji Day. The easiest? Tweet about your emoji love with the hashtag #WorldEmojiDay. You can also follow the hashtag to see what others have to say.

If you want to do a little more to show how much you care,  go the extra mile, and host your own emoji party. Buy some emoji balloons, make some emoji treats, play the World Emoji Day anthem or maybe even host a screening of “The Emoji Movie.”

If that still isn’t quite your jam, you can attend an event. Follow the World Emoji Day event page for information on events occurring in your area.

At the very least, you can spam your friends with a ton of emojis to commemorate the occasion.

You can also follow the World Emoji Day twitter for the latest World Emoji Days news. No matter how you celebrate the day, make sure you do it proudly. Happy World Emoji Day!

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