When is National Good Samaritan Day?
March 13th is National Good Samaritan Day.
What is National Good Samaritan Day?
There’s no club for people who like to change flat tires in the rain. It’s an awful task, so it’s a big deal when a stranger pulls over to help. That kind of compassion deserves its own day of honor. So National Good Samaritan Day celebrates people who practice selfless acts of kindness.
Simply put, Good Samaritans help people in need with no expectation of return. Also called Good Samaritan Involvement Day, this day honors the impulse to roll up the sleeves and jumps in to control the emergency.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan comes from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible. Jesus tells about a Jew left for dead by robbers and ignored by his own countrymen. Help finally comes from a Samaritan. The Jews would not normally interact with Samaritans, so the stranger’s compassion was an example of great selflessness.
National Good Samaritan Day commemorates the death of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese who was murdered on March 13th, 1964. Nobody actually witnessed the attack, and historians argue about how many people may have heard screams. All the same, newspapers reported that as many as 38 bystanders heard her screams and failed to act. National outrage followed, which led lawmakers to create the 911 emergency system in 1968.
Fun facts about National Good Samaritan Day!
- Acts of compassion give effective boosts to our short-term happiness.
- The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon in which people in a crowd are less likely to help someone in need.
- Good Samaritan laws protect rescuers who help people in distress from lawsuits for causing unintentional injuries or death.
How to celebrate National Good Samaritan Day:
Keep your eyes open for people in need. Even if there’s just a runaway grocery cart or someone who dropped their phone, find a way to help someone today.
What’s the hashtag for National Good Samaritan Day?
Promote selfless acts of kindness on social media with #GoodSamaritanDay.