2018 National Youth Day (NYD) celebrated on 12 January

The 2018 National Youth Day (NYD) has been celebrated in India on January 12 to mark the 155th birth anniversary of social reformer, philosopher and thinker Swami Vivekananda. He was considered a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India and bringing it to the status of a major world religion in the late 19th century. He became popular in the western world after his famous speech at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was the chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna and founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. In 1984, the Government of India (GoI) declared the day as the National Youth Day (NYD) and since 1985 the event is celebrated in India every year.