Free Hugs in Skopje

It started by one guy in Sydney, Australia, standing on the street offering free hugs. Now what's known as the "free hug campaign" has traveled the world to places like New York, Austria, France, Finland, Japan, Korea and right here in Skopje, Macedonia.

Here's the video from downtown Skopje this summer... the song is "The Hardest Thing" by Toshe* from his English album:

And here's the original video and a news spot from Australia:

Hugging a stranger and in public is something that is culturally outside-the-box for most cultures in the world. The run-ins with police that people have had as well as the wide berth given to the huggers in most places testifies to this. Yet comment after comment that I read said how good people felt afterwards, how happy, encouraged. One commented that hugging a stranger showed her how we're really all the same. From the videos you can see faces change from suspision and quizicalness to amusement, joy and laughter. There's a world of people out there who are just a gesture of love away... and one person can make a difference.

Let us be encouraged by this to keep sharing the ultimate gift of love, given so freely and with arms open wide two millenia ago.

*******

Here are some of the other "free hug" videos:

Hollywood

Manilla

Amsterdam

Scotland

*Toshe Proeski died in a car accident last October. This song was release posthumously.