April 8th: Draw a Bird Day
The date is celebrated globally and has its origin in a curious story. It all began in England in 1943 with a 7-year-old girl named Dorie Cooper who had gone to visit her uncle who was injured in the war. She found him very disturbed as he had lost his right leg. To try to cheer him up, Dorie asked him to draw a bird. He looked out the window and spotted a robin and drew it. She found the drawing funny and told her uncle that he wasn't a very good artist, but she would still hang the drawing in her room. The girl's honesty made her uncle and other soldiers who were also present laugh.
Since then, every time Dorie visited her uncle, they played drawing contests. For a long time, the walls of the entire ward were decorated with bird drawings.
Unfortunately, the game was interrupted by a tragic accident: Dorie was killed in a car accident three years later. At her funeral, bird images that had been made by soldiers, nurses, and doctors from the ward were placed on her coffin. Since then, everyone remembers the little girl who brought hope to the ward by celebrating "Draw a Bird Day" on April 8th, her birthday. The date has grown in significance and is now celebrated worldwide as a way to express joy in the simplest things in life. To commemorate it, people draw birds on this day and share them in public places or on social media.
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