World Book Day in Spain

April 23^rd is World Book Day. This is a fitting annual commemoration as it is celebrated on the same day that Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare died way back in 1616.

It is also somewhat of a coincidence that both figures, who we all know are unknown figures, passed away on the same day. Ok, this is not 100% true because there is a small issue that the calendars do not match. Evidence suggests that, in 1616, the Julian calendar was still in force in Great Britain whereas Spain had adopted the Gregorian one. Although both writers died on April 23^rd according to their respective calendars, if we go by the calendar which was in force in Spain at that time, Shakespeare actually died on May 3^rd, in other words, 10 days after Cervantes.  But that is not really important. What does matter and is relevant is that we all jump at the opportunity to use a false coincidence such as this as an excuse to celebrate something as marvelous as literature.

Concealed behind a book´s cover a whole universe lies waiting to be discovered. Once we enter it we are transported to places far beyond our imaginations, to unknown worlds and faraway lands or we are encouraged to examine ourselves. Whenever we open up a book we become part of the stories it contains seeing through the characters’ eyes and sharing their experiences and emotions. This immersive journey, the stories we take part in and the characters we come across will change us forever.  Even when we read a book for a second time we see and experience it like never before, because we are completely transformed.

A library is just like the world we live in. The contents of its bookshelves are the keys to knowledge. Exploring the bookshelves in more depth and immersing ourselves in the volumes they hold, which contain so many stories just waiting to be discovered, will be a challenging task which we should take on, whether independently or under the guidance of a parent, grandparent, teacher or friend.  There are very few things more pleasurable than reading and nothing beats the sense of happiness we feel when we assimilate and make sense of a book’s content.

When I was a child there was a campaign which used the slogan “what is now a comic will soon become a book”, and it is certainly true that the habit of reading can be acquired from a very young age. We can encourage our children to see libraries as places where they can spend their free time and meet their friends, we can give them books as presents, in whatever format, and we can help enhance the critical thinking skills of the fellow members of our society through the power of reading.

Who cares that Shakespeare died ten days after Cervantes? What does matter is that we have put aside April 23^rd to celebrate these writers and the happiness and pleasure we get from reading books.

Furthermore, the fact that our occupation involves us teaching the very beautiful language of Don Quijote should motivate us even more in our career: we must make the learning process a pleasurable experience, revealing the secrets and magic of a language which acts as a bridge, joining instead of dividing  countries, their ways of life and cultures on both sides of the Atlantic,  like the tilde which joins the two hemispheres of the Instituto Cervantes logo and the one which typifies and sits on top of the Q in the don Quijote logo.

Let’s not just celebrate  World Book Day on one day of the year but all year round, celebrating culture, the power of communication, education, learning and  intercultural dialogues, which as Spanish as a foreign language teachers along with our colleagues in other languages we are already doing.

Happy World Book day everybody!