Worldwide World Book Day is celebrated every year on April 23. UNESCO undertakes the responsibility of the event. With the help of the event, UNESCO aims to inculcate reading habits among people, especially the youth and highlight the various issues surrounding authors, publishers and other related parties. Since Copyright is a big issue in the world of books and writing, there is always a focus on the issue on the World Book Day. That’s why, in many parts of the world, this day is also known as the World Book and Copyright Day. The first ever World Book Day was celebrated on April 23, 1995. The date as decided by UNESCO as it was also the death and birth anniversary of William Shakespeare, a world famous author. The date also coincided with the death anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes, who was a noted Spanish author. Some other well known authors whose birth or death anniversary falls on this day are Maurice Druon, JosepPla and Halldor Laxness.The idea of the day was taken from a Spanish tradition. April 23rd has always been celebrated as “The Rose Day” in Spain. On this day, people exchanged roses for showing their love and support, much like the Valentine’s Day. However, in 1926, when Miguel de Cervantes dies on the day, people exchanged books instead of roses in order to commemorate the death of the great author. The tradition continues to this day in Spain and that’s from where the idea of the World Book Day came about. As the name suggests, the focus of the day is on books and writing. Thus, various programs are held by UNESCO to promote reading habits among people. Focus is also on discussing various issues pertaining to the world of authors, publishers, distributors etc. as well as promoting their works and causes. However, unlike other such days, there are no themes decided as such by UNESCO each year, although there is a specific topic around which programs are organized every year. Apart from that, there are traditions on the day which are specific to some countries. The tradition of exchanging books in Spain has already been talked about. There is also the tradition of organizing a reading marathon spanning two days in Spain, at the end of which an author is given the coveted Miguel de Cervantes prize by the King of Spain. In Sweden, writing competitions are organized across schools and colleges.In UK as well as Ireland, the day is celebrated on the first Thursday of March instead of April 23. April 23 is the St. George’s Day in UK, and hence, to avoid a clash with it, the day has been moved in UK as well as Ireland.The organizing body of the day, UNESCO, comes with different themes for the day each year. In 2012, the theme of the day was translation. The theme of World Book Day 2012 was decided in order to promote “equitable access of content across regions. April 23 is designated by UNESCO as World Book Day, a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries across the world. Each year, UNESCO selects the World Book Capital for a one-year period, effective 23 April onwards (Athens, Greece is the choice this year).April is a symbolic date for world literature. It is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, HaldorK Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, JosepPla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those, who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. What is World Book Day? World Book Day is a celebration of authors, illustratos, books and reading around the world. Established by UNESCO, it is a one-day festival, which is celebrated in over 100 countries all over the globe. This year’s theme is “Read Your Way”. This theme emphasizes the importance of choice and employment in fostering a love of reading.World Book Dayaims to encourage the importance of reading and writing on a global scale. Further, it appreciates the prolific English literature authors and their contributions who left a mark on history. Reading books is very important for school childrens as it helps them to improve their vocabulary, learn moral values, connect with the past, and increase general knowledge. When did World Book Day start? This is the twentieth anniversary of World Book Day being recognised in the United Kingdom. But the first ever World Book Day in the world took place on the 23 April 1995. Why does World Book Day happen? The idea of celebrating books at the end of April originally came from booksellers in Catalonia, Spain, in 1923. This was when writer Vicente Clavel Andres wanted to honour fellow author Miguel de Cervantes who died on this date. It is also coincidentally the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. How do World Book Day tokens work? Provided by the National Book Tokens Ltd, publishers and booksellers, millions of book vouchers are sent to children and young people across the country. Every year, 15 million of these tokens are dispatched, that’s one for nearly every child aged under eighteen in Britain. Once your child receives their voucher, they can take it to a local bookseller and pick one of ten exclusive new books to take home for free. Or, if they’d rather, they can use it to get one pound off any book or audio book costing over £2.99 at a participating bookshop or Book Club Kingdom. World Book Day celebration was started by the UNESCO first time on 23rdof April in 1995.Generally, it is celebrated by the authors, illustrators, books and to encourage reading among common public. It is the worldwide celebration of the books and readings and celebrated in more than 100 countries.
“On World Book Day, gift books to your kids, friends, and family. Find out their favourite authors and give them the gift of knowledge. Whichever way you think to celebrate the World Book Day, ensure it is an instructive ordeal for you.As we come together to celebrate the magic of books on World Book Day, let us remember the profound impact that literature has on our lives and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the joys of reading are accessible to all”.
WORLD BOOK DAY HISTORY: There are many legends behind celebrating the world book day on annual basis on international level worldwide. The connection of world book day celebration date means 23rd of April and books was established first time in the year 1923 by the various Spain booksellers in order to pay tribute to the most famous author named Miguel de Cervantes. The day is the death anniversary of the Miguel de Cervantes.The exact date of the world book day celebration was established first time in 1995 by the UNESCO to celebrate the World Book and Copyright Day. It was decided by the UNESCO to be celebrated on 23rd of April as it is, according to the Gregorian calendar, the birth and death anniversaries of the William Shakespeare, Vladimir Nabokov, Manuel Mejía Vallejo; death anniversaries of the Miguel de Cervantes (died on 22nd of April and buried on 23rd of April), JosepPla, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and birth anniversaries of the Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Maurice Druon and Halldór Laxness.
HOW WORLD BOOK DAY IS CELEBRATED: One can get involved in celebrating the world book day by buying and reading some exciting and funny books from the market or popular book shops where all the favorite books based on brands, characters or authors are available. World book day celebration plays a great role in bringing kids closer to the books reading habits as well as creates interest in them to know about authors and other important things.It was started celebrating throughout the world by the UNESCO for easily promoting the reading habits among kids, publishing and protecting the intellectual property using copyright. 23rd of the April has been a significant date for the world literature as 23rd of April of 1616 was the death anniversary of many great personalities.The date has been decided by the UNESCO to pull worldwide people attention to pay tribute to the books and authors. It encourages people specially youngsters to read books, discover real pleasure and knowledge among books as well as creating new ideas for their extraordinary contributions towards the social and cultural development of the country or people. Giving a rose with each book purchase to the customer may motivate them to read books and feel respect.World Book and Copyright Day celebration is specially carried out by the teachers, authors, publishers, librarians, all the public and private educational institutions, NGOs, working group of people, mass media and etc. Variety of programmes are organized on international level by the UNESCO National Commissions, UNESCO clubs, centers, associations, libraries, schools and other educational institutions. Working group people are promoted for the library membership to get the collection latest books written by famous authors. Various activities like visual art, drama, workshop programmes and etc can aid more motivation to the people. When you read, you have more to think. Reading gives you a special power to catch any kind of understanding and knowledge. The advantage of reading helps you to keep the memory sharp and increased learning capacity.Through reading, you open yourself to new things, new data, new thoughts, better approaches to take care of an issue, and better approaches to accomplish an objective. Reading may enable you to find an activity or investigating tendency you did not have before. Investigation and better learning start with reading and understanding. Reading has an excitement esteem. Reading is not just fun, however, it has all the additional advantages that we talked about up until now. A decent book can keep you engaged while creating fundamental abilities. It can build up new skills; you never knew about.A book conveys learning, and information as well as knowledge of different sorts. They say, “The more you read, all the more well-read you are”. In simple terms, this means the more you read the more uncovered you are, your states of mind, your thoughts and your creative energy. Even different writers, ghostwriters and book writing services in this era know the significance of World Book Day 2024.The perfect approach to celebrate this day would be to discover an opportunity to do some reading right now. Do you have a book that you are not able to finish? Today is an opportunity to twist up in the lounge chair or a cover outside with some espresso or tea and appreciate each and every page of that unread book. On World Book Day, gift books to your kids, friends, and family. Find out their favourite authors and give them the gift of knowledge. Whichever way you think to celebrate the World Book Day, ensure it is an instructive ordeal for you.As we come together to celebrate the magic of books on World Book Day, let us remember the profound impact that literature has on our lives and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the joys of reading are accessible to all.
(The authors write regularly for the opinion pages of “Kashmir Horizon”. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
[email protected], [email protected]