World Emoji Day: Why we celebrate on July 17

Mark World Emoji Day by tweeting your favourite emoticons.

Emoticons, popularly called emojis, have become ubiquitous in communication so it would only be fair to have a day dedicated to them. July 17 is World Emoji Day --a celebration of the pictograms that bring our conversations to life.

World Emoji Day will be marked with Twitter hashtag campaigns, singing of the official anthem of the observance and parties where people will dress up as emojis.

More than a week before the observance, the website of World Emoji Day had asked social media users to vote for the emoji they believed summed up 2022 in the best way. The "melting face" emoji and the "holding back tears" emoji emerged as the two finalists.

World Emoji Day will also see users tweeting their favourite emojis and baking emoji cakes.

There was a suggestion for fun game too. "Email from your kid’s school? Respond with emojis. Text from Grandma? Describe your day using emojis. Running late for work? Apologize with emojis! Phone call from the bank? Probably best to answer that," the World Emoji Day website said.

But why is July 17 the designated day to celebrate emoticons? It is because the date appears on the calendar emoji.

"The calendar emoji date is the reason this July 17 was chosen, but the day is much bigger than just one emoji," the World Emoji Day website said. " It is a celebration of all emojis."

On World Emoji Day, the website also announced that people may soon have new emojis to use.

"A shaking face, two pushing hands, and a plain pink heart. These are just some of the emojis that are up for approval this September," it said. "Ahead of World Emoji Day, Emojipedia has created sample designs for each candidate emoji. While some might not make the cut, most presented for approval are historically confirmed."