Lost & Found Day

Throughout recorded history, humans have been losing personal items and finding others, and the emotions accompanying these events have ranged from despair to joy. So it should come as no immense shock that Lost and Found Day has been invented, in order to acknowledge the impact these situations have had on our lives!

Although this event is celebrated on no set “day” (it varies from location to location), this does not take away from its importance in the least. In essence, Lost and Found Day has been set aside to encourage us to return any items that we may have found during the past year to the people who have lost them and who may be extremely worried.

Likewise, it is also a great occasion to try to find any personal belongings which we have lost and put an end to the frustration of having to go without something we need.

How to Celebrate Lost & Found Day

There are several different ways you can go about celebrating this day! Check out a few here:

Look for Lost Objects

The first is to make a point of finding something you yourself have lost and have been somehow doing without since you did. There is no reason you should have to!

Taking your couch apart is a good place to start looking for whatever it is that’s gone missing, and chances are you’ll find a few other things you’ve long since forgotten you had in there as well. Another good place to conduct a full inspection of would be your dirty clothes bin—as it’s a messy place, to begin with, it’s especially easy to miss things that somehow end up there.

Turn Something In to the Lost & Found Box

If you are lucky enough to not be missing anything, you could celebrate Lost & Found Day by finally getting around to taking something you’ve found in to your local lost and found, like that lovely sweater you found on the bus a while back, or those keys that were laying on the pavement near your building. You might just make someone who’s almost lost all hope’s day!

Of course, there is no guarantee that we will be rewarded for our efforts, but that is not particularly the point. Many feel that this occasion is simply meant to remind us that we live in a world where decency and responsibility need to be embraced.

Make the World a Kinder Place

After all, there are well over 7 billion of us here on Earth that need to work together to make the world a better place. Indeed, Lost & Found Day is as much of a moral event as it is a time to give back and (hopefully) receive.

History of Lost & Found Day

Lost and Found Day was officially announced on November 19th, 2012. Founded by an educator in the state of Washington, Lance Morgan, the purpose behind the day was to remind teachers, parents, kids and others to not give up hope. After all, lost items may just make their way back home again!

While this particular event may be fairly modern, the concept of having a place where people can come to possibly recover things they have lost dates back 1805 when Napoleon Bonaparte opened the first lost and found an office in Paris. Objects found on the streets of the city could be brought there, and those looking for them could go there to see if their items had been brought in.

Since then, the concept has spread all over the world. Transport for London’s lost property offices collects about 130,000 objects every year, ranging from the obvious choices such as mobile phones and wallets to more unexpected and unusual ones, like wedding dresses, urns containing ashes of the deceased, wheelchairs and even kitchen sinks.