Yesterday, EHST joined millions of people worldwide to celebrate World Humanist Day.  Michael Werner’s talk focused on humanism and the importance of human worth and dignity as a principle of action.  Such action  makes the world a better place for all people.    Here is what the International Humanist and Ethical Union says about World Humanist Day…

“World Humanist Day is celebrated every year on June 21. It is an opportunity for humanists and humanist organizations to publicize the positive values of Humanism and to share the global concerns of the Humanist movement, and we’ve been celebrating the day since the 1980s.

World Humanist Day originated in the 1980s, when several local state chapters of the American Humanist Association (AHA) began celebrating. But at first different chapters had different ideas as to what the date should be.

Some chapters, for example, preferred the anniversary of the founding of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), while other chapters celebrated a Humanist Day on other dates of significance to Humanism. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, first the AHA and then IHEU passed resolutions declaring June 21 to be World Humanist Day. In both cases the day was declared under twin resolutions: the first to decide that there should be a World Humanist Day, the second to decide when that day should be.

Every year since then, World Humanist Day has been celebrated around the world on June 21. The grassroots origins and process of establishment mark the origins of World Humanist Day as highly democratic.

June 21 usually marks the date of the June solstice around the world (summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and winter solstice in the southern). The solstice event has echoes of ancient communal gatherings, as well as reflecting humanity’s deepening scientific understanding of our world, and being an event that, by its nature, is shared globally at the same moment in the calendar.”