On Feb. 12, 2024, we hosted “Crafting Kindness and Spreading Love: A Valentine’s and Random Acts of Kindness” with Supporting Artist Maryam Sedadi.
In the spirit of altruism and heartfelt gestures, we recently hosted an inspiring Instagram Live event hosted by Maryam Sedadi, known among her followers as @kimyacollection or the ‘Card Queen’. Maryam, an analog collage maker guided us through a session of crafting kindness cards – a fitting celebration for both Valentine’s Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day.
Random Acts of Kindness Day has a history that stems back to the early 1980s and has grown into an international observance that encourages us to participate acts of kindness without seeking acknowledgement or reward. It all started when the phrase “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” was coined by writer and activist Anne Herbert in the San Francisco Bay area in 1982 when she published the first known account of “Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Acts of Senseless Beauty” in a CoEvolution Quarterly- a magazine founded in the 1970s by Stewart Brand, the creator of the “Whole Earth Catalog.” The idea behind the concept was selfless acts for random strangers performed for no other reason than to make others happier.
This sentiment gained popularity and in 1993, a book titled “Random Acts of Kindness” was published by Conari Press in Berkeley, California, which shared stories of kindness and solidified the concept. The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAK) was then founded in 1995 in the U.S., and this led to the first national Random Acts of Kindness Day in February 1995. This concept having been borne in California hardly comes as a surprise to me. Ever since I relocated here a few years back, a tradition persists to this day that catches me off guard each time is while waiting in a drive-thru to pick up coffee, on several occasions, I’ve discovered that the person ahead of me has anonymously covered my bill. Such acts of spontaneous generosity were quite unfamiliar to me as someone who hails from the Big Apple.
Random Acts of Kindness Day” is celebrated on February 17th each year. It’s a day dedicated to encouraging individuals to spread kindness spontaneously and without the expectation of anything in return. It aims to create a pay it forward ripple effect, improving the days of many through thoughtful gestures. Just as Random Acts of Kindness Day prompts us to give purely for the joy of bringing happiness to others, Valentine’s Day has, for centuries, been a time to honor and express love. From its origins as a Roman festival to its current status as the quintessential day of affection, Valentine’s Day has evolved to signify the universal appreciation for love in its many forms.
The history of Valentine’s Day has its roots in the ancient Roman festival of “Lupercalia”, celebrated from February 13th to 15th. This was a fertility festival that also included a matchmaking lottery, where young men would draw the names of women from a jar, and the pair would be coupled up for the duration of the festival, or longer if the match was right. As Christianity spread, the pagan traditions of Lupercalia were deemed inappropriate. The festival was eventually outlawed in favor of a more acceptable celebration.
The Church sought to pay honor to Saint Valentine instead. There are several legends and rumors about who this Saint Valentine was, with the most popular one being about a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men were better soldiers than those with wives and families, he decided to outlaw marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, disobeyed Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were uncovered Claudius ordered that he be put to death. The holiday was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496 to be celebrated on February 14th in honor of Saint Valentine. The day didn’t become associated with love until the Middle Ages. As it were, another writer Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet popularized the day as a day for romance, writing in the 14th century that February 14th was the day birds and humans come together to find a suitable mate.
By the 17th century, Valentine’s Day was widely celebrated in Scotland and England, where people would exchange handwritten notes or tokens of affection. By the 18th century, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small gifts or handwritten letters. With the invention of printing technology, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology and cheaper postage rates. Which leads us to current day, our workshop helped inspire some ideas for some creative card making of your own.
During our workshop, Miriam uses markers, scissors, heart punchers, glue, ribbons and papers. She emphasizes using personal items to customize cards from the heart for recipients. Her sample Valentine’s Day card uses punched paper hearts with marker scribbles. Nadine shows her very basic pencil and printer paper card. Rowan demonstrates creasing toilet paper rolls into hearts then watercolor painting them. They reinforce easy approaches without specialized tools to lower barriers for beginners. If you are interested in feeling inspired, I recommend checking out some of our sample cards created during our live event!
For those that attended, thank you for making Kindness Cards with us and @kimyacollection in honor of Valentine’s Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day!
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This was SUCH a fun way to honor Random Acts of Kindness Day. Can’t wait to give my card to someone!
i loved this event, tons of fun and positive energy!