There are many different ways to celebrate World Humanist Day. And every year Humanists devise new activities for World Humanist Day and create new ways to promote them. Below are some examples used by Humanist groups around the world:

World Humanist Day originated in the 1980s, when several local state chapters of the American Humanist Association (AHA) began celebrating World Humanist Day.

World Humanist Day is celebrated every year on June 21. It is an opportunity for Humanist individuals and organizations to publicize the positive values of Humanism and to share the global concerns of the Humanist movement.

There are more godless groups in the world than ever before. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), the world union of Humanist, atheist, rationalist, freethought and ethical culture groups, now has 117 member organizations from 38 countries. At the World Humanist Congress in Olso, five new member organizations joined the IHEU, taking it to the highest membership figure in its six decade history.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union is pleased to announce it is now accepting applications for the IHEU-HIVOS Humanist Network and Development programme for 2011. A total of 75,000  Euros is available for grants, with Euro 10,000 per year as the maximum annual funding for any single project. The deadline for applications is September 1, 2011 (but there is an August 1 pre-qualification deadline for groups that are not IHEU member organizations). Detailed information on the programme and the grant application procedures, plus application forms, can be found below.

IHEU president Sonja Eggerickx was among a distinguished roster of speakers at the 70th Annual Conference of the  American Humanist Association. The conference, from April 7 through 10, 2011, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was attended by more than 450 people. Sonja gave the following brief summary of the IHEU and its activities:

The Happy Human symbol was chosen in a competition organized by IHEU member organization the British Humanist Association in 1965. It was designed by Dennis Barrington. Since then, it (or one of many variations) has been widely adopted by Humanist organizations, including IHEU.

In 1952, at the first World Humanist Congress, the founding fathers of IHEU agreed a statement of the fundamental principles of modern Humanism. They called it "The Amsterdam Declaration". That declaration was a child of its time: set in the world of great power politics and the Cold War.