Pan American Pharmacy Day

We salute and congratulate all Pharmacists, who with their vocation of service and professionalism make the Pharmacy the trusted and safe Health Center for the Health of all people.

The day commemorates the First Pan-American Congress of Pharmacy held in Havana, Cuba, in 1948, where the resolution was signed that consecrates December 1st of each year as Pan-American Day of Pharmacy, in honor of the Pharmacists of the three Americas.

The Hygie Cup: Ancestral symbol of Pharmacy. The Hygie Cup is internationally one of the best known symbols of the pharmacy profession. It is a serpent coiled over a cup or chalice. The serpent represents power, while the chalice is symbolic of medicine.

The symbol has its origin in the Greek goddess Hygieia, daughter of the god of medicine Aesculapius and sister of Panacea, the goddess of healing. Hygieia, goddess of health and hygiene, was commissioned by her father to prepare the remedies he used. It is from this goddess of health that the word hygiene derives, since she was the goddess of cleanliness and sanitation.