12th January: National Youth Day

Tags: Important Days

The theme for National Youth Day 2022 is “It’s all in the mind,” a key teaching of Swami Vivekananda.

Every year 12th January the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is celebrated across India as National Youth Day, to honour one of the greatest philosophers and spiritual leaders.

• The decision to celebrate Vivekananda’s birthday as National Youth Day was taken in 1984, and it was first marked on January 12, 1985.

About Swami Vivekananda:

• A towering spiritual philosopher, Vivekananda, was born in 1863 in Kolkata and is credited for popularising the Vedantic ideas.
• Swami Vivekananda was the chief disciple of 19th century mystic and yogi Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
• He founded the Ramakrishna Math, a monastic order based on his guru’s teachings in Kolkata and a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Mission based on the ancient Hindu philosophy of Vedanta.
• The revival of modern Hinduism and inspiring nationalist consciousness during colonial rule are considered to be the major achievements of Swami Vivekananda and he is best known for his famous 1893 speech at the first World’s Parliament of Religion held at Chicago, US, where he introduced Hinduism to the Western world.