Friendship

Published Mar 04, 2021 by
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In the book, The Prophet, author Kahlil Gibran writes about friendship saying, “Your friend is your needs answered.  He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.” Friendship means different things to everyone, but finding happiness and solace in friendship is universal. Friends come together in many different ways: meals, activities, and conversations.

In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic took over the world, billions of people had to learn the meaning of “social distancing”. And soon, friendship had a different meaning. Meals and activities with groups of people went away, and the only safe way of interacting was virtually through video chats, phone calls, and texts. In the absence of in-person interaction and fellowship, we realize how many interactions we took for granted. Hopefully in the years to come, when the pandemic is behind us and social interactions are safe again, we will see our friends with a renewed sense of appreciation.

Our Joyner Library Digital Collections contain pictures of fellowship banquets which was a systematic method of encouraging friendships and camaraderie between ECU and community members. Below are two links :

Pierce Fellowship Dinner, The Daily Reflector Image Collection May 16th, 1963

 

YDC Roosevelt dinner, Greenville, N.C., April 28, ’50

 

These dinners have fostered lifelong friendships including the famous friendship between Chancellor Leo Jenkins and Governor Terry Sanford which brought about positive changes to ECU.

Friendship Day (also International Friendship Day or Friend’s Day) is a day in several countries for celebrating friendship. The tradition of dedicating a day in the honor of friends to have originated in the United States in 1935 but it actually dates back to 1919. Friendship Day celebrations occur on different dates in different countries, with grandeur and exchanging of cards, gifts, and armbands.
The US celebrates Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August.