World Book and Copyright Day 2022: History, significance, theme and why is it celebrated

The World Book Day is celebrated every year on April 23. This day coincides with the death anniversary of well-known English playwright William Shakespeare. The day is proudly celebrated by UNESCO to promote reading and the love of books, publishing and copyright awareness. 

World Book Day 2022: History

In the year 1995, the UNESCO decided to celebrate the World Book and Copyright Day on April 23 to mark the birth and death anniversaries of several renowned authors.

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The chosen date is symbolic in world literature as on this date famous literary figures - Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. So, the day is also a tribute to them.

This day also marks the death and birth anniversary of many other prominent people, including Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. 

World Book Day 2021: Theme

The main idea behind the World Book Day is to spread the happiness and pleasure of reading. This year, the theme of the event is “Read, so you never feel low”. With this, the plan is to widen the reading bandwagon and recognise the scope of books.

According to UNESCO, the city of Tbilisi in Georgia was chosen as the World Book Capital for 2021.

Every year, UNESCO and the some other international organisations representing the three major sectors of the book industry, namely publishers, booksellers, and libraries, chose the World Book Capital for a one-year period.

Last year, UNESCO created a bookface challenge to celebrate this special day. An official statement released by the organisation read, “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.”