The story of International Tea Day

The day is celebrated on December 15 every year to explain the importance of tea in everyone’s day to day life. Also, the day highlights the key areas of focus at the global level that can help in nurturing the tea industry and make the global drink even more popular. The day also focuses on the health benefits of various teas like white, green, black, herbal, and oolong, to name a few. Scroll below to know about the history of this day and its importance at global level. (Image: Pixabay)

If we go by the reports, the tea day was decided at the World Social Forum in 2004 and was named International Tea Day and in 2005, the first International Tea Day was celebrated in New Delhi and later in 2006 Sri Lanka joined the league and started observing International Tea Day. In 2015, the global expansion of International Tea Day took place, when the Indian government proposed the same to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. And then, in 2019, the United Nations combined tea days in several countries into one. However, you will be surprised to know that the Intergovernmental Group on Tea proposed to observe this day on May 21, which also received its approval at the FAO Conference. (Image:Pixabay)

The idea behind celebrating this day is to create awareness about the demand of this global drink, which is the second most consumed beverage after water in the world. On this day communities and governing bodies organize seminars and events that talk about the growth and numerous challenges that the industry is facing in terms of growth of farmers, and other problems like less pay, no medical care, and lack of clean water on the farm, among others. On a lighter note, the day on social media revolves around the #InternationalTeaDay where people show their creativity in terms of styling, flavorus and even anecdotes of how they are connected to tea as a beverage. (Image: Pixabay)

For people in India, tea is not just a drink, but a lifestyle. What does it mean to you? Let us know in the comment section. (Image: Pixabay)