Icelandic Facebook Groups: Hundasamfélagið

2016 and 2017 have been rough times for humanity. Syria, Orlando, Manchester, Alan Rickman, Donald Trump, Harambe, the list goes on. Of course, we’re not trying to trivialize these disasters—the death of Harambe and the refugee crisis are incomparable—but there has never been a time in recent history where humans have more needed an outlet for happiness.

Enter dog groups. “Dogspotting” is arguably the monolith in this category, with more than 600,000 members, but don’t worry: as with America and British TV shows, Iceland has their own endemic version. The group is called “Hundasamfélagið” (“Dog Community”) and has nearly 25,000 canine-crazy members, which is almost 8% of Iceland’s population. For reference, that is as if 24 million people joined a Bunny Appreciation Group in the States.

The point of Hundasamfélagið is pretty self-explanatory. People post pictures of cute dogs, or talk about cute dogs, and everyone reacts with a bunch of red hearts and kissy emojis. The top post at this moment shows a fluffy Corgi on a couch. “Hi hi,” the caption reads. “My name is Sámur and I am 4 years old today. Does anyone else have a birthday today?” The lucky cutie received 71 likes and 18 comments, the majority being variations of “Congratulations!” What a party! Others were more personalised, like “Doggy hug from Kletti and Láka!” or “What a beautiful birthday child you are!”

The Grapevine’s favorite though translates to, “Biður sends his regards,” which, in English, sounds a whole lot like the ominous quote that follows the Red Wedding in ‘Game of Thrones’. Hopefully little Biður’s last name is not Tywinsson, and if it is, Jesus Christ.

But in these wild and crazy days, perhaps celebrating the little things—like Sámur’s 4th birthday—is all one can do to fight the malice that takes Britain out of the EU or grabs women by their vaginas. Perhaps the best medicine to the upcoming World War between America, Russia, and ISIS is a floofy doggo, and what better option that cute little Sámur. Hey, at four years old, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen had already been on ‘Full House’ for three seasons. So move over North West, Sámur is the new four-year-old star in town. Happy birthday you cutie!