It's World Emoji Day, when apparently there's a 'global celebration of emojis', along with emoji events and awards for various categories of emoji. If your response is a cynical 'seriously?', #WorldEmojiDay was apparently Twitter's top trending item in 2015, proving either that this really is a thing, or that Twitter users have finally lost the plot.

The team at Emojipedia came up with the idea of World Emoji Day back in 2014. In case you're wondering why July 17 was chosen, it's because on Apple phones, if you use a calendar emoji, the date shown is July 17, and in recent years Google has also used July 17 on its calendar emoji. The significance is rather lost on you if you're viewing this item on a Windows machine as it shows March 21st on its calendar emoji.

Over the years, the events around World Emoji Day have become more widespread and bizarre. Apple chooses World Emoji Day to announce what emojis it's planning to add to the range on iOS,and companies as diverse as Pepsi, Sony Pictures, Disney, and even the London Royal Opera House have marked the day in various ways.

There's also a vote to decide the Best New Emoji, the Most Anticipated Emoji, Excellence in Emoji Use and which emoji best represents the current year as Emoji of the Year.  Last year, the winners were announced live from the New York Stock Exchange. This year's winners are being announced at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy. The most Popular New Emoji was voted as Smiling Face with Hearts, with Pleading Face as the runner up. At the time of writing, voting was still going on for the award of Most Anticipated Emoji.

While the vote might have gone to Smiling Face with Hearts, that's not the most widely used emoji worldwide. According to a report from Baidu to mark World Emoji Day, the most popular emoji worldwide is the Face with Tears of Joy, followed by Face Blowing a Kiss and Red Heart.

If you've stuck with us this far, the World Emoji website suggests that to celebrate World Emoji Day, you could throw an emoji themed party where everyone comes in fancy dress as their favorite emoji character. The website also recommends that you sing the official anthem and upload the video, or just put it on repeat in the office. That'll be popular.

Personally, I'm off to recover by writing a nice Cobol program with no graphics, never mind emojis anywhere near it. :-)

More Information

Emojipedia

World Emoji Day Site

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