Source of Happiness: Festivities and Celebrations to Mark the Centenary of the Gas Industry in France and the 50th Anniversary of the Société Technique de L’industrie du Gaz (1924) Fernández Paradas, Antonio Rafael Fernández Paradas, Mercedes For the first time, in this chapter, we analyze the activities organized in 1924 by the Société Technique de la l’industrie du gaz (Société Technique) in Paris to celebrate its 50th anniversary and the beginning of the gas industry in France in that capital in 1824, that is, its centenary. The Société Technique organized several events. These included the installation of a commemorative plaque in tribute to Philippe Lebon and an exhibition aimed at informing the general public and the gas community about the past and present of the gas industry to promote advocacy and historical memory. It is accompanied by a major party at La place de l’Opéra, the association’s Congress, Gas Week and the publication of a book on the history of the gas industry in France. Most of these activities were aimed at the general public and were very well received. The text is based on unpublished documentation, consisting mainly of the press of the time – general and specialized – photographs of the events and the book that the Société Technique published that year on the occasion of its 47th Congress. This association wanted to share with Parisians and visitors to the 1924 Olympic Games, as well as with the gas community, its joy at the gas industry’s contribution to the well- being of the French people by providing gas as a source of light, heat and movement. To this end, it organized celebrations and events to pay tribute to gas and the great deeds and men who had made France the leading gas power in continental Europe through the participation of culture – through music, artists, theatrical performances, cinema- . Important traditional and Parisian cultural and political figures attended many of these activities. We will show that the commemoration was a success, with thousands of people enjoying free activities organized for the general public. In short, the events we are studying here, which took place between May and June 1924, brought happiness to gas industry members, especially the French, and also to the public, who could enjoy them. Happiness, too, because they served to recall past events and the achievements of the gas industry in France. Happiness, too, because the activities were designed to make those involved in the gas industry proud of the development that gas had achieved by 1924 and to look forward to the future with optimism. The work is structured in four parts. In the introduction, we set out the objectives; in the second part, we analyze why the Société Technique organized the commemoration; in the third, how the celebrations link to happiness and well- being; in the fourth, we present the most relevant conclusions. 2025-06-17T11:30:10Z 2025-06-17T11:30:10Z 2025-06-17 book part Fernández Paradas, Antonio Rafael y Fernández Paradas, Mercedes. Source of Happiness: Festivities and Celebrations to Mark the Centenary of the Gas Industry in France and the 50th Anniversary of the Société Technique de L’industrie du Gaz (1924). Festejos y celebraciones con motivo del centenario de la Industria del Gas en Francia y del cincuentenario de la Société de l´Industrie du Gaz (1924). A Journey towards Happiness Management as a leitmotiv for well-being, social marketing and business success. Suiza: Peter Lang, pp. 299-310. ISBN 9783034352420. E- ISBN 9783034356541 9783034352420 9783034356541 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/104717 spa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ embargoed access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Peter Lang