6-Year-Old Invents New Holiday: “Annual Kindness Day” Now Approved!

When 6-year-old Eddie Writes wrote to his city’s mayor last year to ask for help starting an annual “Kindness Day”, New Zealand’s Wellington Mayor Justin Lester was quick to write back and show support for the new holiday.

Thanks to a young boy’s longing for a kinder world, the capital city celebrated its first “Manaaki Day” , with manaaki being the indigenous Māori word for kindness.

Kindergartens across the city collected gifts for those in need, and Volunteer Wellington then distributed them.

“Kindness should be what politics is all about,” says Eddies mother, writer and feminist Emily Writes. “When you become a politician, it shouldn’t be for money or power or privilege ― it should be because you had a dream right from childhood that you could work with others to make our world better.”