HumanTide is a holiday for celebrating humankind, extending gratitude beyond our existing social circles to our whole amazing species!
It was founded by me (Cora Lee) in 2023. With help from partners and friends, I have celebrated the holiday each year on May 10th. We celebrate by gifting surprise flowers and messages of gratitude to folks in our community, traditionally at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle.
HumanTide is inspired by my experience being gifted a bouquet of flowers by my friend, Kit Kuksenok (@xn_ze_ro), many years ago, and being challenged to give each one away to a stranger. Kit’s gift was, in turn, inspired by the artist Lee Mingwei and his installation “The Moving Garden”.
Below are some photos and artwork from past HumanTide festivities, and a directory of related blogs and social posts.
Past substack and instagram posts:
Human Tide 2023: Instagram post #1 | Instagram post #2
HumanTide 2024: Substack post | Instagram post
HumanTide 2025: Substack post | Instagram post
HumanTide 2026: Substack post | Instagram post
I would love to see HumanTide festivities expand. I hope anyone out there who feels compelled to celebrate will do so! Reach out to me if you want help figuring out how :)
Also, DID KNOW KNOW that anyone in the world can create a holiday at any time and celebrate it in any way they want to? If there’s a holiday in your heart yearning to manifest, I pray you’ll give it space to spring forth. I would love to see it!
<3
-Cora