28 Apr National Honesty Day_April 30th

At Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, honesty never takes a backseat. Our goal is transparency and clear communication in everything we do. So when we learned about National Honesty Day on April 30, we decided it was time to give this lesser-known holiday the attention it deserves.

Read on to learn the origin of the holiday and ways you can make the most of the occasion.

Who started National Honesty Day?

Believe it or not, National Honesty Day isn’t new. It traces its origins to the early 1990s when author M. Hirsch Goldberg researched and wrote his book The Book of Lies: Fibs, Tales, Schemes, Scams, Fakes, and Frauds That Have Changed The Course of History and Affect Our Daily Lives. In it, he investigates the huge impact even a small lie can have on people and the world. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for him to decide that honesty was a virtue worth celebrating. He soon proclaimed April 30 National Honesty Day.

Fun Fact: Goldberg selected the last day of April for National Honesty Day to contrast April Fools’ Day, a time to deceive and trick people, on the first.

How can I recognize the holiday?

There are lots of ways to appreciate honesty and practice it yourself! It comes down to staying true to yourself and with everyone around you. If you have kids, try to answer their questions straightforwardly and trust they’ll be better for it (kids are tougher than we give them credit for!). If your significant other has said or done something hurtful, talk to them about it and try to find common ground.

If you want to practice being honest with yourself, try journaling. What’s important to you? How have you been feeling lately? What are your goals? You might be surprised where your pen takes you.

Or, if you’d rather learn from example, try one of these family-friendly movie options.

1. 1. Inside Out (2015): A little girl moves across the country where her feelings—joy, anger, disgust and sadness—try to navigate a new home, school, and unfamiliar people and places. A good reminder that our feelings always catch up with us, no matter how deep we bury them.
   2. Nanny McPhee (2005): An old nurse sent to watch seven siblings reclaims her youthfulness as the children learn to practice honesty.
   3. Mulan (1998): A young girl assumes the appearance of a man to serve in the Chinese military. An inspirational tale about being true to yourself no matter the circumstance.
   4. Doubtfire (1993): Divorced dad Daniel Hiller dresses as an older British nanny and convinces his ex-wife to hire him to watch their three children. An example that no matter how pure your intentions, deception almost always catches up with you.

Start practicing today

The best news is you don’t have to wait for National Honesty Day to start celebrating! Most of us could probably work on communicating more clearly with the people in our lives, even if it just means slowing down a second to get our facts straight.

There are some situations we can’t control. But we can always control our actions and the words we use with other people and ourselves. We encourage you to mark April 30 on your calendar as National Honesty Day. Even if you don’t celebrate in the ways we’ve suggested, it’s worth taking a minute to consider the simplicity in being honest, no matter how hard it can seem in the moment. It really is the best policy.

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