World Book and Copyright Day celebrated
Worldwide on April 23, 2016
April
23 is celebrated every year as World Book and Copyright Day as designated by
the United Nations. It is a yearly
event organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) to promote reading habit, publishing and copyright.
The original idea of
World Book Day was of the Valencian writer Vicente Clavel Andrés as a way to
honour the author Miguel de Cervantes, who died on April 23. The date is also
the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la
Vega. It is also the date of
birth or death of other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K. Laxness,
Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. April
23 was, therefore, a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference held in
Paris in 1995 to commemorate this day and
pay
a worldwide tribute to books and authors, encouraging everyone, especially
young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect
for the irreplaceable contributions of literature.
World Book
Capital 2016: Wroclaw, Poland
Every year, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of
the book industry i.e. the
publishers, booksellers and libraries select the World
Book Capital for a
period of one year, effective 23 April each year. This year, the city of
Wroclaw (Poland) has been chosen for its commitment to spreading the message of
the power books possess in nurturing creativity and advancing dialogue between
women and men from all cultures.
Message
from the Director-General of UNESCO, Ms.
Irina Bokova
“A
book is a link between the past and the future. It is a bridge between
generations and across cultures. It is a force for creating and sharing wisdom
and knowledge.
Frank
Kafka once said, “A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our
soul.”
A window onto our inner lives, books are also the doorway to mutual respect and understanding between people, across all boundaries and differences.
Coming
in all forms, books embody the diversity of human ingenuity, giving shape to
the wealth of human experience, expressing the search for meaning and
expression that all women and men share, that drive all societies forward.
Books help weave humanity together as a single family, holding a past in
common, a history and heritage, to craft a destiny that is shared, where all
voices are heard in the great chorus of human aspiration.
This
is what we celebrate on World Book and Copyright Day, in partnership with the
International Publishers Association, the International Booksellers Federation
and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions -- the
power of books to nurture creativity and advance dialogue between women and men
of all cultures.
I
thank Wroclaw, Poland, as the 2016 World Book Capital, for its commitment to
spreading this message across the globe. This has never been so important at a
time when culture is under attack, when freedom of expression is threatened,
when diversity is challenged by rising intolerance.
In
turbulent times, books embody the human capacity to conjure up worlds of
reality and imagination and express them in voices of understanding, dialogue
and tolerance. They are symbols of hope and dialogue that we must cherish and
defend.
William
Shakespeare died on 23 April, 1616, preceded by only one day by Cervantes. On
this day, I call upon all of UNESCO’s partners to share the message that books
are a force to counter, what Shakespeare called, “the common curse of mankind
-- folly and ignorance.”
Source of above message from Ms. Irina Bokova: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/wbcd
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