World Book Day : 23rd April

[zelda_pinwheel]

World Book Day is coming up on the 23 April. This international event organised by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) got its start in Spain in 1923, where the commemoration of Miguel de Cervantes' death by local booksellers combined with the celebration of St. George's Day to create a new traditional exchange of flowers and... books.

The intent of World Book Day according to the UNESCO :
By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.

23 April: a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, 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, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference 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.

The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia where on 23 April, Saint George's Day, a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold. The success of the World Book and Copyright Day will depend primarily on the support received from all parties concerned (authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, humanitarian NGOs and the mass media), who have been mobilized in each country by UNESCO National Commissions, UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations, Associated Schools and Libraries, and by all those who feel motivated to work together in this world celebration of books and authors.

MR member Saladdin proposes we try to think of ways to make ebooks part of the celebration : for example, going back to the original Catalan tradition of booksellers offering a rose for every book purchased, and florists giving a small book with every rose purchased, and men offering roses to women who reply with a book, he proposes that we might give virtual roses for ebook purchases, or perhaps we could send e-roses to authors we appreciate (provided their work is available as ebooks, obviously ! ). Sounds like a nice idea to me !

So, how will you celebrate World Book Day ?




Thank you to Saladdin for the tip !

World Book Day on wikipedia.

World Book Day on the UNESCO site in english and in french.

Note that the UK apparently celebrates World Book Day on 5th March 2009.

[Sparrow]

"UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. "

Boooooo!!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

"UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. "

Boooooo!!

hey now, they don't say "through copyright in its current form"...

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

hey now, they don't say "through copyright in its current form"...

Yeah that's true - I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt then ...... for now.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Yeah that's true - I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt then ...... for now.

that's very broad minded of you.

anyway, i'm more interested in the whole roses + books idea !

[Patricia]

Maybe we could add a rose to our collection of smileys?
Then I could present Harry with a dozen virtual red roses for his Conan Doyle uploads.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

that's very broad minded of you.

anyway, i'm more interested in the whole roses + books idea !

I have a feeling that FTD is sponsoring this day. Roses have nothing to do with books.

[DixieGal]

Did anyone else, reading the thread title, think this was about World Book encyclopedias?

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

World Book Day is coming up on the 23 April. This international event organised by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) got its start in Spain in 1923, where the commemoration of Miguel de Cervantes' death by local booksellers combined with the celebration of St. George's Day to create a new traditional exchange of flowers and... books.

Did it start here? Good 23 April has always been the Book Day for me, and there are discounts in many bookshops (not much, 5-10% maybe). The exchange of book and flowers is only a "tradition" in Catalonia (North-Eastern Spain, around Barcelona), as far as I know, and I find stupid that women are supposed to give books to men and men are supposed to give flowers to women, I wouldn't like to be a woman there. Around here we just buy some nice books this day.

23 April: a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died.

Cervantes and Shakespeare both died the 23 April 1616. However Cervantes died ten days before Shakespeare Yes, read again, yes, it's true:

Shakespeare and Cervantes apparently died on exactly the same date (23 April 1616), but in fact Cervantes predeceased Shakespeare by ten days in real time (for dating these events, Spain used the Gregorian calendar, but Britain used the Julian calendar). This coincidence however has allowed UNESCO to make 23 April the World Book and Copyright Day. (From Wikipedia.)

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have a feeling that FTD is sponsoring this day. Roses have nothing to do with books.

The original post said that it is UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) that is organising the day, Jon.

What is FTD? I'm not familiar with that acronym.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have a feeling that FTD is sponsoring this day. Roses have nothing to do with books.

I reckon the roses symbolise our love of books.

You're not just giving someone a book, you're giving them love too.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Maybe we could add a rose to our collection of smileys?
Then I could present Harry with a dozen virtual red roses for his Conan Doyle uploads.

i think we should be presenting YOU with flowers !! hm... maybe we could use that as an idea for the future badges...

Originally Posted by Jellby

Did it start here? Good 23 April has always been the Book Day for me, and there are discounts in many bookshops (not much, 5-10% maybe). The exchange of book and flowers is only a "tradition" in Catalonia (North-Eastern Spain, around Barcelona), as far as I know, and I find stupid that women are supposed to give books to men and men are supposed to give flowers to women, I wouldn't like to be a woman there. Around here we just buy some nice books this day.

discounts on books sounds good to me too...

Cervantes and Shakespeare both died the 23 April 1616. However Cervantes died ten days before Shakespeare Yes, read again, yes, it's true:

Shakespeare and Cervantes apparently died on exactly the same date (23 April 1616), but in fact Cervantes predeceased Shakespeare by ten days in real time (for dating these events, Spain used the Gregorian calendar, but Britain used the Julian calendar). This coincidence however has allowed UNESCO to make 23 April the World Book and Copyright Day. (From Wikipedia.)

those crazy brits ! always have to be different ! maybe that's why they decided to celebrate "World Book Day" on 5th of march instead...

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

those crazy brits ! always have to be different ! maybe that's why they decided to celebrate "World Book Day" on 5th of march instead...

We did? I must have missed it.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Patricia

What is FTD? I'm not familiar with that acronym.

I don't know what it stands for, but it is a flower delivery network. I think many florists are part of it.

http://www.ftd.com/

BOb

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

We did? I must have missed it.

well, according to this site they do : http://www.worldbookday.com/

but, you can join in on the 23 with the rest of us anyway.