Youth…a difficult term to define! We all knew, once (at least), this feeling when someone older than you asks « from what age you’re not young anymore? », implying « Am I old for you? », and you don’t know what to answer in order to not hurt the person. 
First, never answer this question, it’s a trap! 
Then, is there a real answer to this question? I mean, can you really choose an age from which you’re not young anymore? Let’s say that this age is 25 years old. It means that when you turn 26 you enter in the circle of the old people? I don’t think we are living in a world like this. 
Let me explain. 

To start, we could maybe take a look at what the organisations like the United Nations say about the youth’s age and the definition. They defined youth as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s indépendance and awareness of our interdependence as numbers of community and for statistical consistency across regions, it defines « youth », as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. 
After this definition, we can see that according to their standards, youth lasts almost ten years but youth is also a notion hard to contain in only one definition. This is why several psychologists wrote about this important topic, trying to define it from different points of vue.
Erik Erikson, one of the most popular psychologists is one of them. In his 'stages of development' he describes the stage of identity vs. role confusion which is said to occur from age 12 to age 18, as a stage in which the individual re-examines his or her identity and tries to find out exactly who he or she is. 
At the same time, Sigmund Freud, in his theory of stages of psychosexual development stated that the fourth and the last stage of development was the genital stage. This stage is set to begin with adolescence (regarded to begin at age 12) and continue throughout the adult years. No specific age at which the period of youth beings and ends were given by him. 
Carl Jung, another giant in the field of psychology, finally stated that the period of youth is a period in which the demands of life harshly put an end to the dreams of childhood and that if an individual is well prepared then the transition to a career can take place smoothly but if the youth is stuck with illusions which are the opposite of reality, then problems arise. To be more specific, Jung defined youth as a period which begins at age 15 and ends at age 40.

As you can notice, depending on the psychologist or, in general, the person, youth doesn’t really fit in one fixed period but it’s more something subjective where everyone has a different opinion and way to think about it. Youth is a large notion so of course you can read and listen to what the professional thinks and says about it but you can also think by yourself and define your own perception of youth.

Maya Audras

Maya is a French volunteer involved in International Youth Day.

There was a specific period during the 2010s when owning a DSLR camera was essential. Having a high-quality camera in the midst of the iPhone 4S boom meant declaring open war on Retrica, PicsArt, and all those apps that made us feel like professional photographers on our phones. It was a time when the Instagram feed was still a mystery, and all that mattered were filters of every kind: black and white, rainbow, galaxy, and the list goes on. In 2014, #nofilter was not an option. The only thing cooler than posting these photos was sharing pictures taken with an actual camera. Nikon or Canon, it didn’t matter; owning a professional camera was enough to grant you entry into the realm of artistic aspirations.

But now, as then, I realize that having a good camera isn’t enough to make you a photographer. So when does one actually become a photographer? When does photography stop being a tool for capturing moments and start becoming something more?

There isn’t a definitive answer. Pierre Bourdieu posed this question in his book Un Art Moyen. His studies focused on analyzing how people practiced photography and how they judged it aesthetically. When Bourdieu wrote the book, it was 1965. Although almost sixty years have passed, I believe the author's initial theory is still highly relevant for contemporary analyses on the subject. Bourdieu talks about photography as an art accessible to everyone and therefore often undervalued and considered of little worth. However, the author goes on to explain that what can or cannot be photographed varies depending on the value system of one’s social class. Bourdieu’s class distinctions may clash with the criteria we use to divide our society today. Yet, I believe that by carefully examining our Instagram profiles, each of us could be placed into a specific category. Without inaugurating a new sociological movement, it’s undeniable that people who fill their feeds with avocado toast and fit checks are not the same as those who post nonsensical carousels filled with memes, blurry photos, and probably videos of sheets flapping on balcony clotheslines.

Just like the peasants, city workers, and office employees in Bourdieu’s study, even today, there are those who consider photography a minor art and others who recognize its aesthetic and artistic value.

The underlying reason why it’s so difficult to determine whether photography can satisfy individual and collective aesthetic ambitions is that it requires little to no preparation. It’s intriguing that this is actually the strength of the practice and the not-so-hidden secret behind its popularity. Everyone can engage in photography, and just as importantly, everyone can be its subject.

The exhibition HerStories. Photographic Practices, 1974-2024 at the Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki is proof of this last statement. Five decades are spread across the museum's rooms, telling the stories of both those immortalized by the lens and those behind it. Forty female artists have explored the complexity of photography when practiced by women. Women’s emancipation, the representation of social and political phenomena through the lens of a camera, and the exploration of photography as a medium are the three narrative threads around which the exhibition is structured.
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The exhibition is a great opportunity to get closer to Greek photography, but it also offers a historical and political overview of the country, without confusing synthesis with superficiality. On the contrary, the exhibition balances text and image, stimulating curiosity and resonating with the viewers. Events like HerStories. Photographic Practices, 1974-2024 must exist to constantly remind us that the importance of photography is not determined by the prestige of the equipment used or the social status of the person behind the lens, but rather by the latter’s ability to tell a story, whether public or private. The greatness of photography lies in its ability to make what is initially foreign seem familiar, introducing us to new aspects of a world that is both near and far at the same time.

Laura Savoini

Laura is an Italian volunteer involved in World Photography Day.

The theme for this International Friendship Day, celebrated on August 12th, 2024, is “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.” This theme highlights the transformative impact of digitalization on our world, particularly in accelerating the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is estimated that digital technologies and data contribute to at least 70 percent of the 169 SDG targets while potentially reducing the cost of achieving these goals by up to USD 55 trillion. This progress is largely driven by young people, aged 15 to 24, who are at the forefront of digital adoption and innovation. As "digital natives," they leverage technology to drive change and develop solutions[1].

As the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaches, the role of young people in digital innovation is essential for addressing global issues[2].
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However, disparities persist, particularly in low-income countries and among young women, who have less access to the internet and digital skills compared to their male counterparts. Even in 2024, there is an urgent need to enhance digital inclusion. A notable example of efforts to reduce inequalities in digital access is the “Young Talent Pipeline,” initiated by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP). This program brings together youth from around the world to create impactful environmental solutions. Launched in 2023, it offers young people between the ages of 27 and 33 the opportunity to contribute to this important work. Chawanagwa Nyirenda, Luis Pineda, and Samantha Dalvalos were part of the first cohort.
 
Chawanagwa Nyirenda's grassroots background with 14 communities in Malawi on climate change adaptation led him to the Young Talent Pipeline. At the end of his UN Volunteer assignment with the Young Talent Pipeline, Chawanagwa developed the UNEP's strategy on loss and damage. He also created a comprehensive stocktake paper to guide the environmental approach.
 
Luis Pineda joined UNEP's Nature-based Solutions team, where he contributed to drafting a proposed resolution on nature-based solutions during the 6th UN Environment Assembly. Although the resolution was not adopted, Luis describes the experience as invaluable for his learning and development: "Being able to co-lead this multi-stakeholder participative process is so far one of the most rewarding experiences of my work in UNEP."
Samantha Dalvalos joined the Young Talent Pipeline with a clear mission: to make an impact and support the global restoration movement. For Samantha, the most rewarding aspect has been gaining insight into the mechanisms that underpin UNEP's decision-making processes[3].

It's more about looking at the big picture and proposing solutions while learning and sharing knowledge — young people at the fore of it all[4].

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[1] United Nations (2024). 2024 Theme: From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development. United Nations. International Youth Day 12 August. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/observances/youth-day
[2] “”
[3] United Nation volunteers (2024). Youth volunteers push for nature-based solutions. United Nations volunteers. Retrieved from https://www.unv.org/Success-stories/youth-volunteers-push-nature-based-solutions.
[4] ‘’’’

Sandra Diaferia

Sandra is an Italian volunteer involved in International Youth Day.

Every year since 1991 we celebrate World Photography on the 19th of August to commemorate photography and also to share photos, something very useful to raise awareness about socio-economic challenges or just for the spreading of culture and ideas.

Photography seems nowadays like something very simple since almost everybody has a mobile phone with a camera. The truth is that it was a great revolution back in the days when photography appeared on the international scene during the 19th century. Precisely, the 19th of August of 1837 marks the date of the invention which is the reason why we celebrate this international day. Well, it was 2 years later, in 1839, when the invention was released to the general public by the French Academy of Sciences. Anyway, on this day we recognized the invention of the Daguerreotype by the French artist and photographer, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.
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Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, better known as Louis Daguerre (Cormeilles-en-Parisis, November 18, 1787 - Bry-sur-Marne, July 10, 1851), was the first to popularize photography, after inventing the daguerreotype, and also worked as a painter and theater decorator. Referring to his invention, the daguerreotype was the first photographic process to be announced and disseminated. It was developed and perfected by the French artist, based on the unpublished previous experiments of Niépce (before 1826), and made known in Paris, at the French Academy of Sciences. Both, the apparatus used to obtain images by daguerreotype and each photograph obtained are known by the name of daguerreotype.

The concept of photography is something that goes from the personal aspect (when we take a photo in a place and/or with someone to have a memory) to the global spotlight, with photography exhibitions rivaling paintings and bringing to the world awareness and realism about death, wars, natural disasters and social problems but also life (including wildlife), natural wonders, beauty and human kindness.

The same process applies to the consecution of World Photography Day. From the personal idea of Indian photographer OP Sharma, in his words to Harmony – Celebrate Age magazine: “The idea came to me in 1988 when, over and over again, in various publications that documented the history of photography, I came across this date: 19 August 1839. It was recorded as the date on which the then French government announced the invention of the Daguerreotype process of photography as a free gift to the world”; to the global celebration that we make every year since Sharma stepped on for it: "I proposed the idea to several masters and photographers around the world, about 150 of them, including the RPS and the Photographic Society of America (PSA)… by the beginning of 1991, everyone took a unanimous decision and we started celebrating World Photography Day that year."

So it’s time to celebrate! Take a photo and share it. Here is mine.

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​And since this is my last article for Praxis… See you soon! Read me again!

Mario Formisano Fernández

Mario is a Spanish volunteer involved in World Photography Day.

​World Humanitarian Day, observed annually on August 19, the United Nations General Assembly designated World Humanitarian Day in 2008, in memory of the 22 humanitarian workers killed in the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq. The day recognizes the efforts of aid workers who risk their lives to help those in need. In this field there are a few organizations and associations very important who help a lot people around the world, in this article we will talk about 2 of them.
We will start with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is one of the world’s largest humanitarian networks, operating in nearly every country to provide aid without discrimination during conflicts, disasters, and health emergencies. Founded in 1863 by Henry Dunant, the movement adheres to seven Fundamental Principles: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity, and Universality. The Red Cross and Red Crescent societies engage in emergency response, disaster preparedness, health services, and promoting humanitarian values.
Another really important organization is the UNFPA, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA focuses on reproductive health and population issues, advocating for the rights of every individual to enjoy health and equal opportunity. UNFPA aims to ensure every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. It works on improving reproductive health, reducing maternal mortality, and supporting family planning. Operating in over 150 countries, UNFPA provides services in sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and population data collection, partnering with governments, NGOs, and the private sector.
In conclusion, this day highlights the importance of global solidarity to support those in crisis. Organizations like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and UNFPA play crucial roles in addressing humanitarian challenges, underscoring the importance of continued commitment and collaboration.

Rodrigo Duarte

Rodrigo is a Portuguese volunteer involved in World Humanitarian Day.

 I’ll be there for you (When the rain starts to pour) I’ll be there for you (Like I’ve been there before) I’ll be there for you (‘Cause you’re there for me too)

Do you recognize it? It was the theme of the most famous sitcom in history, Friends. Maybe nothing like this TV show could explain with so much simplicity what friendship is supposed to be. Friends set up a proper standard of ideal friendship. Anyone who has lived in the myth of
Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer must have fantasized about which place of their city could be the heir of the
legendary Central Perk.
What David Crane and Marta Kauffman have done by creating Friends is not that far from the fantasies that we used to have as children. Basically, the sitcom is the answer to the question: how nice it would be to live with your friends?
Despite the unrealistic expectations settled by the show - it is impossible to have a group of friends together with whom you share every single moment of your life while spending most of your days drinking coffee with them - Friends has a basis of truth. Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross embody the passage between adolescence and adult life, where troubles and concerns become real, and having someone on your side who helps you is essential.

When you are sixteen, all you need to have good friendships are mutual hobbies and interests. Teenagers need friends to go to the cinema with, to talk about music, and to have fun. When you are young, friendship is the stratagem to escape one of the most terrible fears: being alone. Growing up things change, and so do the people of our lives. On the one hand, some of them disappear quietly and we barely realize that; while on the other hand, some people leave behind wounds that need time to heal. Over time, we realize that those people with whom we spend endless hours of school laughing and joking were not our friends. Rather, those people belong to those kinds of persons which I would call “people with whom you get along well”. With them, we share moments full of joy, but the relationship finishes in front of two beers in a pub. We never completely share the grief, sorrow, and traumas that
are part of everyone’s existence. In the time of need, they are not going to be there for us - rightly, I will add - for one simple reason: they are not friends.

If it is hard to find a proper definition for our non-friends, try to explain what a friend is, it is even harder. Unlike a love relationship, friendship does not have aims or norms. It is a set of values that pass from person to person. Ideas and personal interests are shared between friends in a unique way that not only develops our personality, but they shape and change it. Here, everyone is at the same time teacher and student; and in every conversation is hidden a new thought, that is meant to become part of our person.

However, never before it has been so difficult to find a group to learn and grow together. Nowadays, loneliness has reached an all-time high. Often regarded as the result of the absence of social interactions, only recently loneliness has begun to be treated as a collective and transversal phenomenon. Loneliness is a sense of exclusion that is felt as much towards those who should be close to us as towards political and economic institutions. We are lonely in response to our need to feel heard, understood, and treated with kindness and respect. A need that is rarely satisfied both in our relationship with society and in our relationship with other human beings.
We live in a moment in human history where we are called to deal we our free time. The society we live in teaches us to fill up our days with useless tasks, that make us feel accomplished only when we reach a status of burnout. People seem to be no more capable to deal with the time they have to take care of themselves and the others. This incapability has led some people to think that in order to love themselves, they have
to distance themselves from others to give space to their personal preferences. But isolating yourself is not the key to pursuing your well-being. Wellness can be reached by
creating mutual support relationships. Those kinds of bonds teach us to take care of each other, which unquestionably requires considerable effort. But through these relationships,
we become part of a bigger mechanism of change that allows us to create safe realities where we can discover the other and the self. We must overcome the fear of letting others into our spaces, strengthen our relationships, create new ones, and build social and cultural spaces based not on the fear of being alone, but on the mutual interest in being well.

Laura Savoini

Laura is an Italian volunteer involved in International Day of Friendship.

From 2014, the United Nations celebrate the World Youth Skills Day on the 15th of July. An important day to promote youth skills and how young people contribute to create a fairer and more equal word. As a lot a people say, youth is the future of our societies. But it’s too easy to say just that. It is essential to consider how can we educate and help this youth to be the future of these societies. Socialization, education, family, school, media, acquaintances… All of these items enable of a person to build himself or herself and to have a place into a society. And most of the time there is a pressure on young people, who are constantly told that they are the future of tomorrow and must take over from the older generation. But what the older generation do to guide and advise the new generation in the development of knowledge, skills and sharing of values to making the world a better place? 

​Indeed, the human is built and grow initially through mimicry. It's not uncommon to hear children saying things at school that are in fact just imitations of what their parents are saying. And it is from this very early age that the values of solidarity, living together, respect or hatred, rejection of others and intolerance are passed on. Of course, this can change with time and the person's environment, but it's very complicated.

Cultural, generational and gender diversity is the key to building peace and development for a better world. Young people don't build themselves. What's more, it's very easy to ask them to build the world of tomorrow, but are older people prepared to make way for young people and their new ideas? Fighting for a fairer world also means questioning the structures of our societies, our stereotypes, our preconceptions, questioning what we think we know and accepting that we live in a world that is changing too fast. But to give young people a glimpse of their skills and potential, we need to give them the room, the opportunity, and the space to blossom and prove what they are capable of. 

Olwen Delsart & Nina Lemarquand

Olwen and Nina are French volunteers involved in World Youth Skills Day.

It’s all about people! On the 11th of July, we celebrated World Population Day. This international day is observed on this date every year to raise awareness of global population issues. It was declared by the United Nations, concretely by the Government Council of the United Nations Development Programme, in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the approximate date the world's population reached five billion people. A stunning amount of people that nowadays looks almost ridiculous compared with the last milestone that we passed on the population’s growth. We reached 8 billion people on the 15th of November, 2022.

The theme for 2024 is “to leave no one behind, count everyone”. UN Secretary-General António Guterres gave his thoughts about it: “As the theme of this year’s World Population Day reminds us, investing in data collection is important to understanding problems, tailoring solutions, and driving progress. So is finance. I urge countries to make the most of the Summit of the Future this year to unleash affordable capital for sustainable development.”
*What is the Summit of the Future? The Summit is a high-level event, bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future (UN). It will take place in September 2024.
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From the UN Secretary-General word's we can understand that there should be a focus on the data as a tool to improve the world financial situation and, therefore, own the proper capital that allows us to continue the pursuit of sustainable development, to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, by 2030 (or someday). But it is also a claim about the fact that everybody deserves an opportunity, a place in our sustainable future. We need to count everyone because as a society, and as humans, we cannot tolerate leaving anyone behind. There’s one future and it has to be for the whole world or it will be for no one.

As we were saying, the United Nations remarks on the importance of data on the social and economic advancements over the last decades, assuming that data will be as important or even more than before. Some of the mentioned improvements “have significantly enhanced the delivery of health care globally, leading to substantial improvements in sexual and reproductive health and the ability to exercise rights and choices. Increasingly, new technologies are enabling more detailed and timely measurement of people's experiences than ever before.” All of this happened, according to the UN, because “societies around the world have made remarkable progress in improving population data gathering, analysis, and use. New population figures, disaggregated by age, ethnicity, gender, and other factors, now reflect the diversity of our societies more accurately.”

In conclusion, we have in our power an instrument to develop ourselves, our societies, just as we should. So celebrate people, count everyone. Gathering the data with a good purpose and the proper interpretation will help us on the way to the future through sustainable development.

 Mario Formisano Fernández

Rodrigo Duarte is a Portuguese volunteer and Mario Formisano is a Spanish volunteer, both involved in World Population Day.

When we hear the word “tropical” what usually comes to our mind are things like ice creams, fruits, juices, cocktails and drinks in general. Nevertheless, other things like deforestation, logging, climate change, urbanization and demographic changes should pop into our mind, since these are challenges that the nations of the Tropics are currently facing.
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But before continuing with the topic, we need to answer the following question: “What are the Tropics?”. According to the United Nations, “the Tropics are a region of the Earth, roughly defined as the area between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn”. We also know that “although topography and other factors contribute to climatic variation, tropical locations are typically warm and experience little seasonal change in day-to-day temperature”. Finally, it’s interesting to remark that “an important feature of the Tropics is the prevalence of rain in the moist inner regions near the equator, and that the seasonality of rainfall increases with the distance from the equator”.

If we want to clarify more about what is this region and what is a tropic, we might check the definition by the State of the Tropics (James Cook University). Here we’re told that “the Tropics is commonly defined as the region of the Earth surrounding the Equator within the latitudes of the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn at +/– 23.5 degrees. With its origins in astronomy, these latitudes are the limit of where the Sun reaches a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year, and are used to define the Tropics in this paper.”

And now, what is the paper they’re talking about? It’s the State of the Tropics Report, released every year (in a focus and short version) since 2014 by different universities and research institutions to raise awareness about the situation and the issues this region faces, and also about its importance for the World’s sustainable development. A major report is published every 5 years. It’s self-defined as a report that “analyses a range of environmental, social and economic indicators to answer this question. The analysis shines a bright light on a variety of key issues and provides a foundation for policymakers, geopolitical analysts and other stakeholders to examine in greater detail the tropics and the major issues affecting it”.

Marking the anniversary of the first report’s release on 29 June 2014, in which 12 leading tropical research institutions collaborated, the United Nations General Assembly adopted in 2016 a resolution, “which declared that 29 June of each year is to be observed as the International Day of the Tropics”.
Some interesting factors about this region noted in the State of the Tropics Report 2022 (which was focused on the impact of COVID-19) are:
-          Major increases in plastic waste from discarded PPE and food containers have reversed many of the plastic recycling gains made in recent years. 
-          Reductions in noise and air pollution during the pandemic have been linked with behavioral changes in some migratory birds. Increases in bird diversity and increased residence times were observed in India and Colombia.
-          There are concerns that the increased production and use of sanitizers and disinfectants are having impacts on the ecology and health of the soil and aquatic biota.
-          Wildlife trafficking and tropical deforestation increased in Brazil, Colombia and Cambodia during the pandemic.
-          CO2 emissions in the Tropics decreased by almost 6% over this period, with emissions in Central America decreasing by 17%. The decrease in CO2 emissions in the rest of the world was lower despite having higher overall emissions.
-          Globally, CO2 emissions decreased by almost 5% between 2019 and 2020 due to economic lockdowns and border closures. However, this reduction was only temporary, with emissions increasing back to pre-COVID levels by the end of 2021.

Also on a global scale, this report highlighted the fact that “the 2020 decreases in CO2 emissions were largely reversed in 2021 with a 4.9% increase (Adler, 2021). Increases in coal consumption by major CO2 emitters, including China, India, the USA and the European Union, were the major contributors to the rebound in emissions in 2021 (Adler, 2021). To achieve net zero by 2050, it is estimated that CO2 emissions need to be reduced by 1,400 million tonnes per year—equivalent to the decrease in emissions in 2020”.

From the previous report, published in 2021, we should mention some significant data such as:
-          The Tropics host nearly 95% of the world’s mangrove forests by area and 99% of mangrove species.
-          The Tropics have just over half of the world’s renewable water resources (54%), yet almost half their population is considered vulnerable to water stress.
-          Biodiversity is greater in the Tropics – however, loss of biodiversity is also greater in the Tropics than in the rest of the world.
In addition, the United Nations reminds us that “by 2050, the region will host most of the world's people and two-thirds of its children”.

With these and more points it is clear the key role of this region in the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, so by helping and taking care of the Tropics we are supporting the whole world and taking care of our common future, that is only possible through proper sustainable development, endorsed by values such as equality and social justice, and key factors like digital transformation and ecological transition.

Mario Formisano Fernández

Mario is a Spanish volunteer involved in International Day of the Tropics.

Music is a universal language that brings people together, no matter where they´re from. Whether it´s ancient tunes or modern beats, music captures our shared experiences and unique expressions. European Music Day showcases the incredible power of music to unite us all. In this article, we will dive into what music really is and take a look at the history of European Music Day, exploring how it started and why it continues to be such a vibrant celebration of musical diversity across Europe.
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What is music? Can we define it?
Well, define music is really difficult and its different for everyone, and for that reason I have some definitions to show you, first of all I will start with a general definition, we can say that music is the art of combining and organizing sounds along with other elements in time to create a composition. It incorporates elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color to create a unique piece. Music also includes other elements like the pitch, which controls the melody and harmony, and the dynamics that affect its texture. It’s one of humanity’s cultural aspects, usually used by humans to express emotions, statuses, events, and stories. There are numerous types and music genres that either focus on or neglect these elements to create a new style with distinctive characteristics. Music is performed using various musical instruments that can be incorporated with multiple vocal techniques. This is a very specific and full definition of music, for me I will say is really difficult to find a meaning or a definition because music is everything, is everywhere, we can create music from anything, music is the combination of sound and silence in every possible way. If you can hear it or feel it, it's music.
 
Regarding this interesting question I also asked some of our volunteers to answer this. Nina said, “Music is an invisible dance that makes you want to join another universe”. Laura said, “Music is something that I cannot touch or see, but that, for some reason, keeps me company, making me feel alone and friendly at the same time”. Olwen said, “Music is something to share with people. It´s art, poetry, party, religion, sharing”. Axel said, “Music is a form of art that uses and organizes sounds in order to create a melody”. And Maya said, “Music is a melody who increases your emotions (joy, sadness, anger, etc..). The music can be with just one instrument or several, it can be with one voice or different ones, you can listen it whenever you want, where you want and with who you want, it’s up to you. You just have to feel it”.
After these definitions I will let you think what is music for you and i want to explain what is the European music day. The European music day also known as The Fête de la Musique, is an annual celebration when citizens and residents are urged to play music outside in their neighborhoods all around Europe. Everything started In October 1981, the French composer and music journalist Maurice Fleuret became Director of Music and Dance at the French Ministry of Culture at Jack Lang's request. He applied his reflections to the musical practice and its evolution: "the music everywhere and the concert nowhere". When he discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one young person out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. On the 21st of June of the same year, the day of the summer solstice, with the initiative of the politician Jack Lang, Fête de la Musique or Faites de la Musique (Celebrate music, make music party) was celebrated for the first time with the aim of “bringing out onto the streets all musicians”.
 
Next year this initiative brought together 200.000 amateur and professional artists of every kind flooding public spaces, squares, streets, parks, concert halls and all kinds of locations, presenting numerous gigs with the support of local authorities. Events ranged from classical to jazz, hip‐hop, rock, dance to traditional music always free for the public and thanks to the generous supporters and sponsors of Music Day. Music Day soon became an exportable concept and in 1985 it traveled beyond France with the same aim and parameters, the first country after France was Greece, in Athens, on the occasion of the first edition of the Cultural Capital of Europe, first events were held on the 21st of June 1999. Since then, European Music Day has become a national event that takes place simultaneously in 50 cities per year (average) throughout Greece (reaching 70% of the population though). Organization combines the production and coordination of a series of events that vary in size and in character (street music festivals, show cases, recitals or big concerts).

Rodrigo Duarte

Rodrigo is a Portuguese volunteer involved in European Music Day.