Thank you for reading this, especially today of all days, as we mark ‘International Thank You Day.’ Yes, now you know, there is such a day.
You may say it, if you wish of course, but no thanks are necessary, it is after all our role to bring you news, generally, information of which you may not have been aware.
International Thank You Day, is celebrated on 11th January, every year. The day is intended to remind us to show gratitude and appreciation, to people, whether individuals or organisations, who in some way, have made our lives better. It is a reminder not to take each other for granted, or that people know how we feel.
At some time or other in their lives, if they have ever travelled outside their locality, most people will have asked the question, “how do you say thank you” in some language or other. Every society has either a word for saying thank you, or a way of expressing gratitude. Speakers of Chapa’laa, native to Ecuador, for instance, do not have a word for thank you, they simply have ways of expressing appreciation and gratitude.
If that sounds strange or unusual, it may surprise you to know that the word, “thank” is relatively new. It is believed to have come into being between c.450 and c.1100, from the old English word for “thought.” You can probably see where this is going. It then evolved into “favourable thought or feeling, or goodwill.” By the middle ages, it became “kindly thought or feeling entertained towards anyone for favour or service.”
It was destined to be shortened, soon or later. Part of the impetus to its being abbreviated, may have been the development around 1400, of the practice of sending messages to people. Expressions of gratitude were almost certainly common in these exchanges of messages. Soon the word entered the commercial, work environment, when people would “thank” colleagues, or clients, for services rendered.
On this day, it maybe worth considering whether “thank you”, in whatever language, still carries the force of its original meaning, or whether it has lost potency with overuse. In Kinyarwanda, you “murakoze”, thank you, often enough, but for those who adhere to the culture strictly, the preference is an unspoken expression of gratitude, rather as the Cha’palaa speakers do.
So, how will say or express your gratitude today, and every other day, bearing in that today is to remind you to say thank you to everyone to whom you feel you it.
