From New York Times Square to the streets of Gwangju, j-hope's 27th birthday was celebrated all over the world on the 18th of February. Featured ads at the Times Square were displayed for Hoseok's birthday, Ostankino tower in Moscow, Russia lit up with a huge birthday ad for him, and, in Itaewon, Hamilton Hotel's display played a Hoseok montage for his birthday. Hoseok's hometown, Gwangju, decorated its streets with a number of murals of various colors that represented Hobi's personality (j-hope daily 🍊, 2021).

ARMYs from the Philippines, Brazil, Peru, and Mexico also displayed various screens and billboards of Hoseok. South Korea turned into "Hobi land", with posters and drawings of him across the railway stations of the country. Since Hoseok was born in the month of love, many displays had a theme of Valentine's Day as well, which contributed to an overall radiant celebration of his birthday (j-hope daily 🍊, 2021).

ARMYs all around the world collected funds, brought necessities, and donated for his birthday.

Besides the birthday displays, ARMYs also donated in the name of Hobi. Indeed, Hoseok himself has been donating to the Child Fund of Korea for his birthday, for which he received a membership for Green Noble Club from the organization (이, 2021). Inspired by Hoseok, ARMYs all around the world collected funds, brought necessities, and donated for his birthday. Chinese ARMYs helped to rebuild a hospital and Pakistani ARMYs celebrated Hoseok's birthday at a children's thalassemia center, where they donated blood and spent the whole day with children (황, 2021; BTS Pakistan Fanbase⁷, 2021). Bangladeshi ARMYs donated comforters for children, who lived in their school's hostel (BTS ARMY of Bangladesh, 2021).

There were numerous projects by ARMYs from Malaysia, Peru, and other countries in the honor of Hoseok (ᴮᴱBTS Malaysia ARMY⁷, 2021; HopeGoesOn_Perú, 2021). On Twitter and Instagram, @OneInAnARMY held the #ShineBrightWithHope project with the help @TewwyWisdom, an organization that promotes mental health in Tanzania by providing group sessions and other services (One in an ARMY⁷ Charity Project ✨💜, 2021).

ARMYs finally managed to celebrate Jung Hoseok’s birthday with the man himself.

Since Covid-19 has shortened a lot of outdoor activities like cup sleeve events, thousands of ARMYs celebrated the day in the comfort of their home, ordering coffee and making their own sleeves for them. Virtual birthday parties were also seen, as people shared on their social media and fan accounts. The Internet remained active even though the outside activities were put to a pause.

Sweet messages filled social media from the very beginning of February, and the traffic increased when Hoseok announced to go live during his birthday (hobi, 2021). After crashing three apps, ARMYs finally managed to celebrate Jung Hoseok's birthday with the man himself, with his strawberry cake and Billboard #1 sign (방탄소년단, 2021). The members also wished Hoseok a happy birthday; Jimin's acrostic poem and Jungkook's sketch of Hoseok with two versions on Twitter and Weverse were both amusing and fascinating to see. Jin's handwritten wish, Namjoon's selcas, Taehyung's battle with Jimin and, of course, Yoongi's adorable message for Hoseok showed their bond with each other. With all the negativity going on in the world right now, celebrating our sunshine, Hoseok's, birthday in our own ways brought joy into our lives.

References

Lead Image: BigHit Entertainment [@BigHitEnt]. (2020, November 7). #BTS #방탄소년단 #BTS_BE Concept Photo - 제이홉 (j-hope) 🎧 http://bit.ly/BE__jhope #Curated_by_BTS #jhope #제이홉 [Image]. Twitter. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EmOq6VAU4AEbq-N?format=jpg&name=large