Taiwanese Had A Hearty Laugh On World Laughter Day

Some 20 members of the Taiwan Laughter Club gathered in a central Taipei square Sunday to share a hearty laugh to celebrate the World Laughter Day.

Led by founder Chen Dar-cheng, the club members and their children chanted 'Ho-Ho-Ho, Ha-Ha-Ha' several times before breaking into belly laughs with names like lion laugh, milkshake laugh and inner laugh.

As if they were not laughing enough, one club member, wearing a doctor's white gown and holding a giant styrofoam syringe, gave each club member a shot of 'laugh medicine' on their backs, triggering shrieks and laughs from each recipient.

The hour-long event ended with the reading of the message for the World Laughter Day by Madan Kataria, the Indian physician who founded the Laughter Club of India in 1995.

Since then, Kataria's laughter movement has spread all over the world.

Currently there are some 5,000 laughter clubs in 40 countries, 3,000 of them in India. He has named the first Sunday of May as the World Laughter Day.

Kataria has quit his job at a Mumbai hospital to lead the Laughter Club International and promote what he calls the 'global movement for health, happiness and world peace'.

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The Laughter Club of Taiwan, set up last year, has invited Kataria to visit Taiwan to promote his laughter movement.

'Laughter is a universal language that has the potential to unite the entire humanity. The reason we are not laughing enough is that we have not understood the real meaning of laughter,' he said.

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'Laughter is not amusement, entertainment or fun. It is an expression of inner happiness which comes only when we understand the deeper meaning of life,' Kataria said in his message for World Laughter Day.

'On this auspicious day, I appeal to you all to spread out your arms and laugh for no reason for at least one minute, sending out vibrations of peace, love and freedom into the universe for international brotherhood, friendship and world peace.'

--Edited IANS