It's World Smile Day. Worcester has good reason to grin.

Worcester artist Harvey Ball gave us plenty to smile about.

And the grin gets a little bigger on World Smile Day, Friday.

Created in 1999 by Ball, inventor of the smiley face, World Smile Day is held annually to encourage people to devote one day to smiles and kind acts.

The event is held each year on the first Friday in October.

Ball created the celebration as a response to the over-commercialization of the smiley face, which he is largely credited with inventing in 1963 to raise employee morale at the State Mutual Life Assurance Co. after it purchased Guarantee Mutual Co. of Ohio.

Baseball fans learned of the city's connection to the smiley face when the Worcester Red Sox unveiled a happy-go-lucky mascot, Smiley Ball.

At Worcester State University on Friday, smiley face stickers are being given out across campus.

“We’re all about offering a welcoming and inclusive experience at Worcester State,” President Barry M. Maloney said. “So on World Smile Day—and hopefully every day—everyone will pass that smile along, from one Lancer to the next.”

Movie buffs will recall the implication that the smiley face was invented by the Tom Hanks character in “Forrest Gump.” In one scene, the jogging Gump wipes his mud-covered face on a yellow T-shirt, saying, “Have a nice day.” The resulting image is a familiar one to fans of Harvey Ball.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: It's World Smile Day, created by Worcester's Harvey Ball