🎉 July 17 – World Emoji Day: Let Your 💬 Catch Feelings 🥳
Let’s give a big emoji-filled shoutout to World Emoji Day, our global excuse to stop typing words and start spamming 😂, 😍, and 🥳! Here’s why this day deserves some extra yellow:
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🧠 Founder & Origin Story
Jeremy Burge, the mastermind behind Emojipedia, launched World Emoji Day in 2014 to celebrate our love affair with emojis—and yes, for once, with style and substance.
Why July 17? That’s the date on the classic 📅 Calendar emoji—Apple’s iCal debut at MacWorld Expo in 2002 immortalized it.
🤔 Quirky & Fun Emoji Facts
The OG 176 emojis were pixel babies invented by Shigetaka Kurita in Japan (1999) for NTT DoCoMo’s i‑mode
Before emojis? We communicated with too‑simple emoticons like :-) and ;-). Emojis brought on the icon revolution
As of 2017, a whopping 2,666 emojis had been officially approved—and now Unicode recognizes almost 4,000
😂 “Face with Tears of Joy” got crowned Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries in 2015—tears of laughter forever
July 17 sees over 100 tweets per minute under #WorldEmojiDay—yep, emoji fever
That hashtag even reached #1 worldwide in 2020 and brought in more than 4 billion impressions
Big brands (Apple, Google, Pepsi) time their emoji product announcements to this day
Apple uses this day each year to tease new emoji batches in iOS
Emojis foster emotional clarity—Twitter, Instagram, and texts lean on them to spice up bland messaging
The Unicode Committee now includes experts (like Burge) to push for diversity in emojis—skin tones, genders, you name it
🎈 10 Quirky Ways to Celebrate
Here’s how to emoji-up your life this July 17:
Emoji-Only Text Challenge! Send a message communicating your full day—without one letter.
Custom Emoji Art: Raid your fridge and recreate a 🍕 or 🥑 on canvas.
Emoji Movie Night: Stream The Emoji Movie and pair it with 🍿+😂.
Emoji Poll: Run one on Stories—ask: “Which emoji sums up 2025 so far?”
Use New Unicode 16.0 Emojis: Try the fingerprint, splat, shovel—and share how you use them.
Emoji-Themed Bake-off: Bake cookies with emoji face frosting.
Emoji Awards: Pick your top 3 favorite emojis and why (get as weird as you like).
Emoji Swap: Change your group's chat icon to random emojis for the day.
Emoji Style: Dress up as your fave emoji—emoji costume time!
Emoji Charity Moment: Money emoji 💰 donated per emoji in your comments—round up the kindness.
Bonus: Educate a friend—teach them what each of those new emojis even means. 😉
🍝 Main Dish: Spaghetti Carbonara (aka the 🍝 emoji)
Classic, cozy, and a nod to everyone’s favorite food emoji. Creamy, peppery, with crispy pancetta goodness.
🍅 Side: Caprese Emoji Skewers
Cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, basil leaves—stacked like kabobs and drizzled with balsamic glaze. Fresh and fun, just like the 🍅 and 🧀 emojis.
🍌 Dessert: Banana Emoji Bread
Moist banana bread slices with chocolate chips (because 🍌 + 🍫 = 😍).
🍹 Drink: Tropical Emoji Punch
Mix pineapple juice, orange juice, and coconut water (add rum if you like). Serve with 🍍 wedges and tiny umbrellas. Bonus: use emoji-shaped ice cube trays!
🕯️ Bonus Decor: Print out or hang emoji faces, use yellow plates, and make it a guessing game—what dish matches which emoji?
🧸 Elementary (Grades K–5): "Emoji Explorers: Feelings & Faces!"
🎯 Objective:
Students will identify, express, and explore emotions using emojis as visual cues, enhancing social-emotional awareness and creative expression.
🧰 Materials:
Emoji flashcards or printouts (common faces: 😃😢😠😨😍😴🤔)
Large chart paper or whiteboard
"Design Your Own Emoji" worksheet
Crayons, markers, pencils
🪄 Instructions:
Morning Message Makeover: Greet students with a message on the board using emojis. Example: “Today we’ll learn how we feel with emojis! 😄➡️💬”
Emoji Emotion Match:
Show an emoji flashcard and ask, “What feeling does this emoji show?”
Create a chart with emoji faces and brainstorm when we might feel each emotion.
Emoji Stories:
In small groups, students pick 3 emoji flashcards.
They create a simple story where someone feels each emotion.
Students present their stories using their emoji cards as visual prompts.
Design Your Own Emoji:
Pass out the "Design Your Own Emoji" worksheet.
Students invent a brand-new emoji and name it (e.g., “The Sneaky Snack Face 🍪👀”).
Share creations with the class gallery-style!
📝 Emoji Design Template:
(Draw a large circle with a blank face and boxes for “Name,” “Feeling it shows,” and “When would you use this emoji?”)
🌈 Quirky Twist:
Turn your classroom into an “Emoji Museum” with student creations posted on the walls, complete with emoji labels for each section!
🧠 Secondary (Grades 6–12): "Emoji-nal Intelligence: Decoding Digital Language"
🎯 Objective:
Students will analyze the impact of emojis in digital communication and use them to reinterpret tone, audience, and purpose in writing.
🧰 Materials:
Sample text messages, tweets, or excerpts (with and without emojis)
Discussion prompt cards
Devices (optional) or printed emoji charts
“Rewrite with Emojis” worksheet
🪄 Instructions:
Emoji Decode Warm-Up:
Show 3 versions of the same sentence with different emojis.
Example:“Sure.” 😐
“Sure.” 😂
“Sure.” 🙄
Discuss: How does the emoji change the tone?
Mini Debate: Do Emojis Help or Hurt Communication?
Students form two teams.
Use prepared examples to argue for or against emoji use in professional and casual writing.
Emoji Rewrites:
Hand out brief excerpts of poems, speeches, or classic text (e.g., Shakespeare, MLK, Maya Angelou).
Students modernize the tone using emojis to update the meaning or mood.
Share and compare interpretations.
Create an Emoji Code:
Students invent 5-7 emoji “slang” symbols and create a dictionary.
Apply the code to a social post or character analysis.
🌈 Quirky Twist:
Host a "Digital Tone Awards" where students vote on the most clever, clear, or confusing emoji-laced messages!
🌍 Quirky in the Workplace
The Great Emoji-Off: Desk Decoding Challenge
Turn your workspace into a puzzle palace. Each team gets a whiteboard or Slack thread and has to write a “day in the life” using only emojis—no words allowed.
Think:
🧋🚗💼👀📞💥💻😱🍕💡📝🎉🏃♂️🍷🛌
Everyone then tries to decode each other’s emoji stories. Bonus points for drama, mystery, and total nonsense.
🏆 Winner gets:
An “Emoji Mood Board” of their face made from printed emojis and taped to their monitor. Eternal bragging rights. Possibly a stress ball shaped like 💩.
📢 Tagline for the day:
“Speak softly and carry a big emoji. Preferably 🦄.”
🎬 Movie - The Emoji Movie (2017)
A full‑length animated comedy set inside a smartphone, starring T.J. Miller as Gene—a multi‑expressive emoji striving to fit in among the “normal” ones. His journey through Textopolis (and various apps like Candy Crush and Dropbox) to self‑acceptance and rescue his world is packed with emoji humor—cheesy, colorful, and totally on-theme
Why it fits World Emoji Day: It’s literally built around emojis, celebrating their personality and pop‑culture presence—even if critics weren’t thrilled, the film made a big splash (and even Razzie history!)
📺 TV Episode - Cake Wars – Season 3, Episode 5: “Emoji” (aired July 11, 2016)
In this special themed episode of Cake Wars, four baking artists compete to design and create emoji‑inspired cakes judged by emoji experts. It’s sweet, creative, and loaded with smiles, hearts, poop‑faces—even edible 😂 —a perfect lighthearted tie‑in to emoji culture.
⚡ Quick Take
World Emoji Day is a celebration of our vibrant, visual digital lingo—with a sparkly origin story and some seriously delightful stats. It’s the ultimate excuse to get creative, expressive, and maybe a little ridiculous, all in four tiny pixels.
📢 Spread the Vibes
#WorldEmojiDay
#EmojiLove
#SpeakInEmojis
#YellowMood
#PixelParty
Have a hilariously emoji-filled day! 🎊
