History

The Day that Started it All

The first National High Five day began in 2002, when inspiration hit a few college students in the early morning hours. With little expectation or indication of what the reaction would be, the University of Virginia undergraduates summoned their courage and their friends to set their ideas into action. They posted fliers, wrote an article for the paper, and devoted a week’s worth of comics to promoting the newfound holiday. Disregarding class attendance in favor of this important cause, they recruited friends, made gallons of lemonade and set up a booth on the university’s central lawn. Waving handmade signs and blasting music in the spirit of the holiday, they attracted the attention and the high fives of students passing by.

Soon they realized just how far their idea had gone. “Professors instructed their students to give a high five before class would begin. Strangers were witnesses on faraway corners of the lawn giving high fives without instruction being shouted or threats being applied. People we were introduced to months later related tales of their own gleeful participation. At one point in the day, a group of about fifty elementary school students walked by us in a line, smiling, laughing, and hugging, all perfectly in time to ‘Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard.’ They gave high fives, leaping up to reach taller members in our group, they showed enthusiasm, and they showed us that what we were doing was something pure.”

Read about the event in the University’s newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, or in the alternative weekly, The Declaration.