National Smile Day (May 31st)

Quick facts
When is it?	Every May 31st
Tagged as:	Attitudes & Emotions Body & Health Life & Living Mental Health Silly & Humorous
What's the hashtag?	#NationalSmileDay
When was it founded?	2018
Who founded it?	Dr. Tim Stirneman and Jim Wojdyla
We first published this page on:	Feb 17th, 2023
We last updated this page:	Apr 7th, 2025

Contents

Peace begins with a smile.
Mother Teresa

Bring out that smile and make the world a better place! Of course, wearing a smile is a great idea for any day but especially on this one, which is National Smile Day.

How to Celebrate National Smile Day

Make the world a happier, healthier place by observing National Smile Day. Get started celebrating with some of these ideas:

Smile at Someone

Choose anyone or everyone to give a little smile to in celebration of National Smile Day. Not only is it fun to show off those pearly whites, smiles are often reciprocated and can even become contagious. So when one person spends the whole day smiling at other people, whether at work, at school or at the grocery store, it’s likely that person will not only smile back, but they may also pass it on to someone else. It’s just not that hard to create a virtual pandemic of smiles!

Learn Some Benefits of Smiling

Many people don’t realize that the act of smiling can actually come with a number of benefits to a person’s physical, mental and overall general health. Learn about some of these benefits and share them with others to raise awareness about the amazing power of smiling for National Smile Day:

Smiling releases endorphins. Though smiling can be a reaction to being happy, studies also show that smiling can actually make a person happier. Hormones that indicate well-being are released even with a fake smile!
Smiling can relieve stress. In the short term, the endorphins released from smiling can act as a pain reducer and can help prevent illness, protect against cancer and have other benefits over the long haul.
Smiling helps people live longer. Studies have shown that intense, genuine smiling is associated with a longer life span!
Smiling can lower blood pressure. Smiling that is associated with laughter may reduce blood pressure which offers benefits for heart health.

History of National Smile Day

It’s logical to assume that people have been smiling all throughout human history. Even for very tiny babies it doesn’t take long until they catch a view of something they enjoy and learn to smile about it. Smiles have been bringing joy and delight to people of all ages for thousands of years. And it seems that smiling can even be good for one’s health!

This particular day for celebrating the smile, National Smile Day, got its start in 2018. The day was founded when two dentists, Dr. Tim Stirneman and Jim Wojdyla from Compassionate Dental Care in Illinois, were motivated to get people to smile more. The purpose of the day is to share with the world exactly what a healthy smile can do.

National Smile Day acts as an important part of National Smile Month, which takes place in part of May and part of June every year. World Smile Day is another celebration dedicated to the smile, which is situated in the month of November.