Happy World Book Day…and Night!

Monday, April 23, 2018, is the 23rd World Book Day, a global celebration of books and reading created by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1995.  (Yes, it’s the 23rd on the 23rd.)  Why April 23?  Supposedly, several famous authors died on this day, including Shakespeare, Cervantes, and de la Vega.  It piggybacks on a few older holidays, including St. George’s Day.  In the UK, World Book Day is moved to March to avoid either St. George or the dragon getting stroppy about it.  (I expect more than a few Harry Potter fans are rooting for the dragon in that mythological contest.  Our empathy with magical creatures runs pretty deep.)

The impetus for World Book Day is to highlight the “magical power of books” (yes, UNESCO actually said that, without prompting from Potter fans, heh, heh).  Books facilitate the sharing of ideas, help build bridges between cultures, and promote peace.

For 20 years now, the Harry Potter books have been praised for their unique ability to get children around the world to read.  In an era of electronic gadgets replacing books for both education and entertainment, the Potter books are credited with getting new generations of children reading again.  The Harry Potter books have been translated into 68 languages.  Children, and adults, in every country on earth have read and loved the series, finding aspects of human nature, the power of love and friendship, and other universal themes that make a story about a British boy wizard resonate across cultures and languages.

World Book Day is observed in various ways around the world, with UNESCO picking a city each year to host workshops about all aspects of bookmaking.  This year’s pick is Athens, Greece.

In 2017, actor Michael Gambon, who played Albus Dumbledore in films 3-8, paid a surprise visit to a British primary school, where kids, dressed in Harry Potter-themed costumes for World Book Day, got to ask him questions.

Dressing up in HP-themed costumes is not just for students, as we highlighted in a post for last year’s UK World Book Day celebration.

World Book Day is, naturally, followed by World Book Night.  This is more of a national event in the UK, but there is no reason we can’t all celebrate books today and tonight.  What might a Potter fan do to celebrate books?  Hmmmm, that’s a tough one, let’s think a minute.  Oh, right……