Life is built around affections, events, learnings,
commitments, ideas, and so many other things.
Dates, anniversaries, memories are marked out on the calendar. That´s why it
stands out as special days to celebrate what is most important.
Our siblings are our closest friends. We grow up with them, in the family; we
share a web of experiences and complicity. What we live among siblings is unique,
unrepeatable and shapes our lives forever.
That is why it becomes so important to have a day dedicated to siblings and the
relationships between siblings.
We decided to establish a Siblings Day. Whether in the family or socially, this
is the way to keep this day always present, strengthening and celebrating the
importance of what happens between siblings:
Growing up together.
The adventures.
The discoveries.
Solidarity.
Closeness.
Complicity.
To be identical and different.
Diversity.
Mutual aid, cooperation and division of tasks.
Joy and sadness.
The good and bad emotions.
Tolerance.
Reconciliation.
Sharing.
Stories, roots and memory.
Whoever knows the happiness of having siblings, knows the meaning of belonging.
The founder and president of APFN - Portuguese Association of Large Families and
also founder and president of ELFAC - European Large Families Confederation, who
passed away on March 2014, is the author of a phrase that marks the celebration
and spirit of this initiative: «If you want to make a child happy, give them a
sibling. If you want to make a child very happy, give them lots of siblings.»
The world we live in seems to forget or underestimate this truth. The
institution of a Siblings Day would point out how happy we can be: be brothers
and sisters. Therefore, the European Large Families Confederation, through a
deliberation adopted by its general assembly on the 18th of September 2014,
decided to proclaim, to institute and to celebrate yearly the 31st of May, as
the Siblings Day, in the run up of a first experience launched in Portugal that
same year.
A Siblings Day is a family celebration per excellence – it is a warm family
celebration in its horizontality and, in the exact sense of the word,
brotherhood. The month of May already highlights some family celebrations such
as Mother's Day (in Portugal, on the 1st Sunday of May) and the International
Family Day, declared and established on May 15 by a resolution of the General
Assembly of the United Nations in 1992.
Closing the month, on May 31, with a Siblings Day would top off the month,
celebrating one of the strongest relationships and family support systems.
On the other hand, June 1, is celebrated in many countries , such as Portugal,
as the World Children’s Day. The celebration of Siblings Day on the eve of World
Children’s Day provides, by coincidence, a very happy and inspiring sequence,
shining the light of the motto:
«If you want to make a child happy, give them a sibling. If you want to make
a child very happy, give them lots of siblings.»
It’s like, collectively, on the eve of World Children’s day, we point out the
happiness of having siblings or in the future possibly more brothers and sisters.
