Festivals, Cricket and support for Kerala connected India on Facebook in 2018

Facebook has released its 2018 Year in Review, highlighting the top ways people came together on the social media platform to talk about some of the year’s key events with their family and friends. This information combines the top single-day moments throughout the year with the top ways the Facebook community used the platform to come together around these moments.

Millions of Indians turned to Facebook to celebrate festivals, extend help in times of need, mourn the passing of leading figures, and talk about the issues that matter most to them and their community. The moments that people discussed most in India in 2018 were: 

• Festivals ruled the roost: India set Facebook buzzing on festivals in 2018 with Krishna Janmashtami, Eid al-Adha, Thai Pongal, Navratri driving the most conversations on the platform, as Indians took to Facebook to celebrate the biggest of occasions with their friends and family.
• Community Connect: The community came together on Facebook to lend support and offer help as Kerala was affected by torrential floods. Facebook features such as Safety Check tool, Live, creating Page, and raising funds enabled people to reach to their near and dear ones, seeking help and informing of their safety.
• Bereavement: The demise of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India, was a reminder of impact that his leadership had in serving the nation with many Indians expressing their sadness, but also sharing tributes by sharing his poetry and inspiring stories of his life.
• Sports bring India together: Nothing unites India like sport does and 2018 was a year that saw a flurry of high octane, exciting, global sporting events.
• Cricket continued to rule to hearts of Indian sports fans on Facebook as it was one of the most popular topics driving conversations on the platform
• Millions of Indian football fans also came together to support their favourite teams and players as FIFA Football World Cup 2018 showcased the best in class footballing action and talent to fans worldwide

Your Year In Review
In a bid to create a more personalised experience, starting on December 10, Facebook users may see a personalised Year in Review video in their News Feed. This video aims to surface special moments from 2018 that the user has shared or been tagged in, and compiles them in a short video that can be edited and shared. 

Methodology
The top moments of this year’s Year In Review were determined by gathering a list of the top keywords by volume mentioned in a single day on Facebook between January 1 and November 11, 2018. To identify which topics were unique to 2018, Facebook compared these keywords to the previous year’s maximum single-day volume. This means that keywords like Mother’s Day and Halloween, which typically represent the top moments every year, do not repeatedly appear at the top of the list.