The World Thinking Day is celebrated every year around the
world on 22nd February by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides. The day is celebrated to
appreciate the help and guidance of brothers and sisters around the world. On a
larger perspective, it is a day to think about fellow brothers and sisters
around the world, address their concerns and understand the true meaning of
guiding.
Originally called the
Thinking Day, the day was first celebrated in 1926. It was during the 4th
conference of Girl Guides in USA that the idea of having a day for appreciating
girl guides and scouts around the world was pitched. After discussion, 22nd
February was mutually chosen as the World Thinking Day. February 22 is also the
birth date of Lord Baden-Powell, which is credited with starting the Boy Scout
movement. Until 1999, the day was simply called as the Thinking Day, and was
largely restricted to the United States. In 1999, during the 30th Girl Scout
conference in Belgian, the name was changed to World Thinking Day to signify the
global impact of it.
There are quite a few
traditions associated with World Thinking day. For example, in Auckland, New
Zealand, girl scouts and girl guides climb Mount Eden and wave the Guide World
Flag. They also sing the World Song and thank each other about their help and
support.
In other parts of the
world, girl scouts from different nations meet and discuss their founders and
their colleagues. In fact, the celebration of the day starts from the nearest
weekend of the day, when girl guides and scouts meet up to express their
thankfulness and take pledges to support the community as long as they can.
Another tradition
associated with the day is that of lighting a candle by the windowpane by an
ex-girl scout. The light from the candle stands for guiding light and signifies
the guiding light acting as illumination in the darkness, where darkness stands
for problems and illumination stands for solutions.
Over the past few years,
The World Association for Girl Guides and Scouts has started adopting themes for
the day. These themes are then discussed in their conferences and suggestions
are made to help solve global problems. In 2005, the theme was "Think
About Food", while in 2012, the theme was "We can Save our
Planet". Other themes that have been incorporated till date are "Do
something about adolescent health issues", "Discover your
potential", "Think about water", "Stop the spread of
diseases", "Together we can end poverty" and "empowering
girls will change the world."
Although the day is largely
celebrated by girl scouts, in some parts, even the boy scouts celebrate the
day. It was in 1932 that the World Thinking Day Fund was established. It was
suggested that since the day falls on Lord Powell's birthday, it should be
about giving gifts and presents. Hence, a fund was set up whereby girl scouts
could give voluntary donations in order to help the needy around the world.
