World Book Day Info, History, Celebration, Significance & Theme

World Book Day is organized by UNESCO every year to offer a literal feast for ardent book lovers across the world. The official date set for celebrations is April 23 on which authors, readers, critics, publishers and editors congregate at a single place to make the event a grand success. Alternatively referred to as Copyright Day and International Book Day, this is one of the global events that is held in high esteem all over the world. Promoting copyright values is one of the actual objectives behind organizing such a unique festival. As a matter of fact, it is celebrated on first Thursday of March in UK every year.

World Book Day: History

Book lovers observed an official event for the first time on 23 April, 1995, to address the problems of plagiarism and copyrights in a serious manner. The day is observed with a lot of excitement in European countries like UK and Ireland to promote good reading habits among kids. Exclusive packs are supplied to schools across the world as well in order to ensure that children get to read what they want.

Strasbourg (France) named UNESCO World Book Capital 2024

Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, has designated Strasbourg (France) as World Book Capital for 2024

Events for Book Lovers on World Book Day:

National Book Tokens Limited assumes the responsibility of passing on tokens for which books could be exchanged. Around 14 million children aged below eighteen years are known to benefit extensively in this regard. Such tokens could be redeemed at any local book center for eight books of personal choice. Perhaps, it is even possible to pick your favorite book based upon specific character, author or theme that has mesmerized you over the years. Valuable books from celebrity authors could be easily accessed in this regard with which you could realize your long cherished dream as well. Short-story writing competition is organized with an aim of promoting the practice of reading and writing amongst the children, young adults and adults of the city.

Celebrations:

Other countries in Europe too are actively involved in spreading knowledge about the value of books. Booksellers in Spain are actively involved in publicizing books since 1923 through which readers belonging to the contrasting backgrounds are able to realize maximum benefits. The event is marked as a perfect tribute to celebrate author Miguel de Cervantes who passed away on the exact day. However, it was because of the earnest efforts of UNESCO that the official World Book Day was being celebrated since 1995 in order to observe the birth and death anniversaries of William Shakespeare and April 23, the death anniversary of Shakespeare was chosen ultimately.

Several developing countries too observe World Book Day with the local flavor. Children are given utmost prominence as they get to read precisely the same books they would like since a long time. Publishers and authors too are known to campaign actively for the Copyright Day to bring the issues faced by them commonly. With the availability of social media in an active manner, the event has been already popularized to a maximum extent. Understanding the importance of reading books and treasuring details is what avid readers are bound to get.

Book is a garden kept in pocket. Book always proves to be the best friend of mankind. World Book and Copyright Day is globally celebrated event that aims to promote the pure joy of books and cultivating the habit of reading. UNESCO declared 23rd April as the day of celebration of knowledge sharing through books. Its observed in over 100 countries.

How To Celebrate:

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, centres, 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.

World Book Day: Significance

The date for the world book day celebration was decided by the UNESCO in the General Conference which was held in the Paris in 1995. Lots of interested people from almost 100 countries associated with voluntary organizations, universities, schools, public or professional groups, private businesses and etc. World Book and Copyright Day celebration attracts people from all continents and cultural backgrounds all over the world. It made them able to discover new ideas and explore their knowledge. Books are depositories of heritage, cultures, windows of knowledge, tools for dialogue, source of wealth and so many.

World Book and Copyright Day celebration has inspired lots of professional organizations from various countries and receives assistance from UNESCO. The worldwide member states of the UNESCO celebrate this event every year to promote the power of books among people in order to bring them together as well as disseminate variety of cultures to other people. The day is celebrated to promote education among young people as well as people living in underprivileged sections.

At this day, some young people including children are awarded for their better performance for novels, short stories or picture books promoting peace, tolerance, understanding and respect among each other for other cultures and traditions. A different poster is designed every year based on the particular themes of the year and distributed among people around the world. Posters are designed in such way to encourage people and children to read more books.

Themes: