Quote:
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.
Quote:
|
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.)