The SU have organised a ‘free hug’ event during freshers

The SU has teamed up with ‘Lewes Hugging for Health and Happiness’ where students can receive free hugs.

The event will be hosted on September 16th between 1pm and 4pm in Library Square.

Lewes Hugging is a group that promotes the health benefits of hugging by stating that a 20 second hug can decrease the risk of heart disease, increase the hormone Oxytocin, and decrease blood pressure.

The group also widely celebrate National Hug Day, which is on January 21st.

Taken from the Lewes Hugging Facebook page:

“Kevin Zaborney is credited with coming up with the idea of National Hugging Day in 1986. He chose January 21 as it fell between the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays and Valentine’s Day when he found people are generally in low spirits.

Zaborney also considered that “society is embarrassed to show feelings in public” and hoped that a National Hugging Day would change that.

Although he thought that his idea would fail it is now also observed in many countries including Australia, Canada, China England, Germany, Poland and Russia.”

There is however more to hugging than meets the eye. In 2006, many of us may remember watching a famous YouTube video of ‘Juan Mann’ in which he took to the streets with a large sign reading ‘Free Hugs’. This sparked the ‘Free Hugs Campaign’ that would encourage people around the world to take to the streets and replicate what he had done.

To find out more, join the event here.