So today, the 1st of March 2017 is World Book Day in England. My two lovelies have been asked to go to school dressed as their favourite book characters. With so many to choose from it was hard to decide but they have plumped for Mildred Hubble from the Worst Witch by Jill Murphy and Matilda from the book of the same name by my all-time favourite childhood author Roald Dahl.
It made me think about how World Book Day is celebrated in the rest of the world. I was surprised to find out that in the rest of the world it is celebrated on the 23rd of April. In Spain people fill the streets of the cities and purchase or exchange books in memory of the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes and the day is called ‘el día del libro’.
Originally it was the idea of the Valencian writer Vicente Clavel Andrés to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes, who died on this date. In 1995 UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on 23 April, as the date is also the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors.
Here at The Modern Language School we agree with the main objective of World Book Day, which is to have fun and enjoy reading books in any language!
To enrol on any of our courses in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian or Japanese, please visit www.modernlanguageschool.co.uk
