Roses and reads: The origins of World Book Day

Booksellers will seize almost any opportunity to push their stocks. So, doing promotions on commemorative dates such as World Book Day on 23 April is a no-brainer.

In fact, selling and promoting books on World Book (and Copyright) Day has been a tradition in Spain, way before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared World Book Day for the rest of us.

Books and roses

Some credit Vicente Clavel, a Valencian writer, editor, and director of a publishing house in Barcelona, for mooting a Book Day in the Spanish region of Catalonia. As a fan of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, Clavel picked 7 October, supposedly Cervantes's birthday, as Book Day. The suggestion was made to the Catalan Chamber of Books, a professional association of publishers in Catalonia, and King Alfonso XIII of Spain signed a decree making it official in 1926. The first Book Day kicked off on 7 October in the same year.

Later, at some point the date was changed to 23 April, said to be the date Cervantes died, and because, apparently, spring weather was better than fall for outdoor book-browsing. The date also coincided with a religious festival dedicated to Catalonia's patron Saint, St George (or Sant Jordi), which has been celebrated for centuries. 

Since then, St George's Day in Catalonia, also known as the Day of Books and Roses, has become a celebration of love and literature. Book and flower vendors set up shop in the open for visitors who would pick either books or roses (or both?) for loved ones, and authors would hold signing sessions. The stalls do brisk business: the Guardian reported that in 2015, sales of 1.5 million books grossed 20 million euros.

Speaking to the Guardian in 2016, Albert Royo, head of Catalonia’s Diplomatic Council, said, “Books and roses promote positive universal values: literacy, culture, peace, civility – and that is something we all share.” Perhaps as part of that aspiration, in 2017 a group of Catalan professionals applied to have the Day of Books and Roses recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Barcelona, capital of Catalonia, was already named a UNESCO Creative City of Literature in 2015.

World Book Days ... and Night

Of course it made sense for UNESCO to declare 23 April World Book and Copyright Day in 1995, to "recognize the scope of books – a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures" and tying it to the deaths of several literary figures including Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Peruvian-born chronicler and writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.

In the UK and Ireland, however, World Book Day is an annual charity event that takes place on the first Thursday in March. It kicked off in 1998 and it can be considered part of international World Book Day, but was moved to avoid clashing with Easter holidays and St George's Day. On 23 April, however, there is a World Book Night, a more recent annual do organised by The Reading Agency, a UK-based charity. Don't get confused.

A year-long book party

But leave it to the Spanish to kick things up a notch – or three – when it comes to book parties. Apparently, Madrid held a slew of events around World Book Day throughout a whole year. One annual event could have been roped into this timetable: a 48-hour Don Quixote readathon where hundreds take turns to read excerpts from Cervantes's masterpiece.

The government of Spain and the International Publishers Association thought it would be great to expand this globally, so in 2001, the World Book Capital initiative was born. Each city designated as a World Book Capital would hold a bunch of events over one year, from one World Book Day to the next, to promote reading and literacy.

An advisory committee made up of people from UNESCO, the International Publishers Association, the International Authors Forum (IAF), and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), observes the activities in each city and determines whether all the criteria for a World Book Capital are met.

Madrid was named the first WBC city in 2001 (of course), followed by Alexandria, Egypt (2002) and New Delhi, India (2003). This year's World Book Capital is Accra, capital of Ghana. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some of us might have forgotten that Kuala Lumpur was designated World Book Capital for 2020.

Like Don Quixote, one can dream

While we might not have something as grand as Catalonia's Day of Books and Roses, and offering discounts on a limited selection of titles might not be as grand a gesture as relay-reading a thousand-page novel (some editions) non-stop, we do what we can.

Maybe sharing this story might kindle something more than a book-buying spree. Who knows? Did Vicente Clavel envision that his idea would eventually become a UNESCO world event?

After all, we have our own bookworms who share the Catalonians' reverence for the written word, and perhaps, some of them will be inspired to start something that would lead to our own Day of the Book.