Artist Kathryn Welch making flower posies.

World Humanist Day 2024 round-up

Lara Celini, Community Engagement Manager

June 24, 2024

Our Charity

Our Community Engagement Manager Lara looks back on a selection of events held for World Humanist Day 2024.

World Humanist Day is celebrated every year on 21 June and we’ve been celebrating it since the 1980s. It’s an opportunity for humanists all around the world to publicise and celebrate the positive values of humanism and to share the global concerns of the humanist movement.

This year Humanist Society Scotland offered individuals and groups in Scotland the opportunity to apply for small grants of up to £250 to help fund activities to mark and celebrate World Humanist Day in Scotland.

Since it is also around the time of the summer solstice for the northern hemisphere, it presented a lovely opportunity to take the celebrations outdoors, which a number of groups did!

Dumfries Humanists held a screening of Much Ado About Dying: A World Humanist Day film screening at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre.
Dundee Humanists had a discussion on assisted dying.
Edinburgh Humanists organised a walk around the Meadows, focusing on history of interest to humanists, followed by a celebratory picnic in Bruntsfield Links.
Fife Humanists enjoyed a guided heritage walk learning about the life and times of Andrew Carnegie, as well as the rich royal history of Dunfermline.
Floral tributes to celebrate campaigners invited nominations from all, and celebrated 50 brilliant equalities activists who have fought for the rights and freedoms we enjoy today. Beautiful posies were made available to view and pick-up from Tribe Porty in Portobello, Edinburgh, and Category Is Books in Glasgow. Each with a hand-typed tag with the name and brief details of one activist.
Glasgow Humanists organised a guided walk around the Merchant City, to learn about its rich history and that of the Glasgow tobacco lords, followed by a picnic.

None of these activities would have been possible without the time, energy, and commitment of our volunteers, so a huge thank you to everyone involved for making these events possible. If you’d like to get involved next year, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be kept informed.

Image: artist Kathryn Welch arranging flower posies dedicated to humanist campaigners.

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