Our Impromptu Free Hugs

There is something miraculous in a hug. A simple, honest embrace.

Something that is able to comfort the soul – whether you’re happy or sad, lonely or popular. A hug speaks to a person more than any words, sometimes.

And that is exactly what a man set out to do many years ago on a busy street/mall in Sydney.

His name is “Juan Mann”.

It was a really really simple ‘campaign’ that quickly turned into an international phenomenon. Juan Mann was going through a tough time, and when he moved back to Australia, he found himself feeling alone. And at a party one day, a random came up to him and gave him a random, simple hug (How many of us have that?! I know I do.). And it made his day! So, with a simple black and white sign, he went on the street and gave hugs. For free!

Free is good.

His friend, a member of an Australian band, Sick Puppies recorded it and made it into a video which he sent to Juan Mann as a gift when his grandmother passed away. And the video was uploaded onto YouTube and since then, it has become one of the most viewed, highest rated videos on YouTube of all time!

Its inspiring, its moving, its something that human wants! That hug, that hug that breaks the barrier or the term ‘stranger’ between every human on the street. Its humanity.

The Free Hugs campaign quickly travelled worldwide with Free Hugs held in, dare I say, every single country in the world. From Malaysia to Israel, Belgium to Taiwan. YouTube Free Hugs <insert any country name> and you’ll get a video of it.

I wanted to organise a Free Hugs for ages but never got around to doing so. The closest I got, two years ago when I was in Kuching, I was told that I cannot do it in this shopping centre I wanted to do.

So one very random night, the four devils (33, Sharon, Deano and I) whose been hanging out until dawn for the past two weeks, decided to go karaoke. We were gonna go to this dodgy public karaoke bar, but it was closed so we ended up in K-Box on Hindley Street. We sang to ‘Billie-Jean’, screamed to ‘So What’ and I sang ‘All the Same’.

Inspired by the song and video clip, Deano dared us to do Free Hugs like right at the moment. It was 3.30a.m. We were on a street where every second shop is a bar or club, there were druggies and drunkards on every corner and we were gonna do Free Hugs.

So we left karaoke, found some cardbox on the street and scribbled, ‘FREE HUGS’ using a texta 33 brought with her. And the FREE HUGS began. It took a while to get rid of the inhibition but once we got started, we were on.

The first one is a guy who were so drunk I doubt he remembers giving us a hug. A taxi even stopped, came down and we gave him a hug! Then we hugged a couple other taxi drivers before we arrived at Pancake House to find that they don’t do their unlimited pancakes anymore.

So we left and hugged a muso – clad in a 70s rockstar costume, alcohol breath, silver hair and beard – who also gave us a kiss on the cheek. He was carrying a guitar and from his very tight, long hug, you can tell the loneliness he felt. He even took off his hat, and thanked us profusely after the hug.

We went on with the hugs – there were no judgement! Everyone who wants it gets a hug, I don’t care. I even hugged a guy who was clearly stoned, and two guys who were so interested in our Free Hugs movement we chatted for at least 20 minutes! Both of them have just got back from Future Music Festival. And one of them speaks French!

Of course, there were randoms and some who rejected our hugs like a guy sitting outside a hotel and the guy working at Maccas.

Our Free Hugs ended when two men, very smartly dressed in suits received some much needed hugs from us and told us that they had a traumatising night. They were eating Big Mac outside this restaurant and were telling us how they overheard a group of people wanting to bash them up – someone just got stabbed to death in that area last week, and there is fights around there every single week. We’ve seen one-too-many of them. And not wanting to risk our lives, we thought we’ll go home and make pancakes cos I was effing hungry!

So we went off to Coles, poked jokes at everything and anything, and bought some pancake mix. We even hugged the chick behind the counter and went back to Deano’s where all of them made pancakes and I snoozed. Hehe. They woke me up when it was ready though.

Aaah. T’was a good night, and definitely an interesting night. What started as an impromptu karaoke session turned into an interesting, inspiring night.

Now, I dare you to do Free Hugs in your area – whether in your university, in the hospital, somewhere! Just grab some friends who’d do it!

FREE HUGS! Anyone?

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~ by ehon on March 15, 2009.