Every year on April 23, which is also the death anniversary of William Shakespeare, UNESCO celebrates World Book Day. It is done to promote reading and the love of books, publishing and copyright awareness.
“Our goal is to engage people in reading, and to have fun doing so! As a celebration of this year's World's Book and Copyright Day, UNESCO has created a 'Bookface' challenge," UNESCO said on its website.
World Book Day 2021: History
In 1995, UNESCO decided to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day on this date to mark the birth and death anniversaries of several renowned authors. April 23 is a symbolic date for world literature because on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. Hence, the day was selected to pay tribute to the great literary figures. It also marks the death and birth anniversary of many other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
World Book Day 2021: Theme
As per UNESCO, the city of Tbilisi in Georgia was selected as the World Book Capital for 2021.
Each year, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry -- publishers, booksellers, and libraries -- select the World Book Capital for a one-year period, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations, effective April 23 each year.
World Book Day 2021: Celebration
As a part of World Book Day 2021 celebrations, UNESCO has created a bookface challenge .
“The book covers are incredibly important and play a vital role in our buying decisions. We’re all extremely judgemental about covers. The pandemic has also reminded us all of the importance of books and reading for comfort and escapism, we’ve all needed it this past year...in such circumstances, we invite students, teachers, readers from around the world as well as the book industry and library services to testify and express their love for reading by participating to this challenge,” an official statement said.
