Redacción Cultura (EFE).- World Book Day vindicates this Sunday the habit of reading with activities from Mexico to China, among which the Cervantes Prize in Spain stands out, together with representations of Shakespeare and numerous book fairs, or even a literary ship that travels from Italy to Barcelona.
Coined as the date of official celebration by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1995, coinciding with the deaths of Cervantes and Shakespeare in 1616, April 23 is also the date of death of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and the birth of Vladimir Nabokov , which makes it an auspicious day to host the festivity.
Although not all countries have adopted the day as a designated day and in some of them the number of acts in honor of reading is very small, there are a good number of nations that participate in the festival, among which Spain occupies a place Outstanding in terms of deployment in number of activities.
Day of Sant Jordi, patron saint of Barcelona
Among them, it is worth mentioning the traditional celebration of the day of Sant Jordi, patron saint of the city of Barcelona, which will make, as every year, the people of Barcelona exchange books and roses as gifts and in the Catalan capital several of their main streets to build a “literary superblock”, in which the sidewalks will be filled with book stalls for all ages.
Likewise, in the Community of Madrid, the day will be marked by the delivery on the 24th of the Cervantes Prize, the highest award for Spanish letters, to the Venezuelan poet Rafael Cadenas at the University of Alcalá de Henares: the writer was also commissioned to inaugurate the last Thursday the traditional reading aloud of Don Quixote that will last for 48 hours at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.
In the United Kingdom, the date is mainly linked to the figure of William Shakespeare and, for this reason, it is often nicknamed “Shakespeare Day”, which will be celebrated this year with a performance in his town, Stratford-Upon-Avon. , from the play “Cymbeline” by the “Royal Shakespeare Company”.
For Italians, the date is not a special celebration, although for more than a decade the commercial liner known as the “ship of books” has been traveling to Barcelona, transporting all Italians who want to participate in Sant Jordi: originated at the initiative of Sergio Auricchio, editor of the literary magazine “Leggere”, the excursion of this eleventh edition will last from April 21 to 25.
China hosts outdoor readings
Despite the difference between calendars, China is one of the few Asian countries attached to the celebration of Book Day, which, as every year, will be celebrated by promoting reading among the youngest with outdoor events organized by schools, in which that the little ones will participate by reading different passages.
In Mexico, the National Autonomous University (UNAM) is the institution that most insistently watches over the celebration, for this reason, each book day hosts for three days (from 21 to 23) the “Book and Rose Festival”, in the Authors such as the Peruvian Santiago Roncagliolo, the Cuban Carlos Manuel Álvarez, the Iranian critic Negar Azimi and the Chilean Alejandro Zambra will participate.
The so-called Language Day in Colombia coincides with the XXXV International Book Fair of Bogotá (FilBo), with Mexico as the guest of honor and Don Quixote as the backbone; The first International Booksellers Meeting will take place there and on Sunday the complete works of the Colombian writer Manuel Mejía Vallejo will be presented for the centenary of his birth.
Although Book Day is celebrated in Argentina on June 15, the date coincides with the celebration, from April 27 to May 15, of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, for which the El Libro Foundation will raffle tickets on the 23rd itself, which will make it possible to meet authors such as Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Irene Vallejo and Ida Vitale.
In Brazil, where the commemoration is not usual, the Sao Paulo subway surprised its users this year with a book exchange campaign from April 17 to 23 between five stations.