Party Time

April 3 is World Party Day, which provides humankind with an opportunity to coordinate
our efforts to throw a worldwide simultaneous celebration. The idea of a global celebration originated in the book Flight, by Vanna Bonta,
which ends with the entire world counting down
to a worldwide party on April 3, 2000. Readers were so inspired by her vision that they could not wait until the year 2000. Instead, they organized the first World Party Day on April 3, 1996.

What is it about humans and their need to throw
a good party? Anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar believes that partying
is a primal human instinct that we have been compelled to satisfy for millennia. What sets the human species apart from other animals is its massive brain volume. Evolutionarily speaking, our large brains demand lots of attention. Brains require a massive amount of energy, and so
we need to fuel them with food. Once they are fueled, our brains allow us to manage incredible social complexities and build massive social communities. Mr. Dunbar argues that as group size increases, it becomes harder and harder
to establish and maintain social cohesion and relationships. Partying is our species’ unique solution to this problem.

Social practices associated with parties—eating, laughter, singing, and dancing—stimulate the release of endorphins in
our brains, reinforcing good feelings and promoting community. Dunbar even goes as far as suggesting that music and dancing in particular are still more likely to take place in the evening, corresponding to another instinctual drive to gather, sing, and dance around fires.

As a species primed and ready to party, World Party Day on April 3 seems like a no-brainer.
With a variety of social media applications ready
to spread communication across the globe in mere seconds, all it takes is the click of a button to send out an invite to the world.