My daughter has things set up so that she can phone me from her car without actually using her mobile. Hands-free technology has been around for a while but it seems to have become much safer in recent years. I am still not entirely convinced of all the safety aspects of selecting the music you want to listen to or the saved phone number you want to call while driving but there it is. Purists say you should simply concentrate on driving and that even having a conversation with a passenger is dangerous! The technology is there and so we use it.
One consequence of this is that our 41/2 year old granddaughter can request certain music selections and can join in conversations going on over the speakers in the car. Yesterday as my daughter was informing me that she was on her way to our house to do a socially distanced walk - the closest she could get to organising a birthday party for her father - the little one butted in the conversation to tell me that today is world book day and so she would be going to nursery dressed up as Elsa from Frozen. Now, I know that Frozen is loosely based on Hans Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”, but I thought it was a film rather than a book. No doubt Disney has cashed in on it by now, however, and published a book using illustrations from the film.
An article in today’s Guardian with advice on how to make costumes if you can’t sew began like this:-
“It’s World Book Day In the UK and Ireland today, one many parents approach each year with a stomach-clenching sense of dread. I know, because I used to be one of them. I cannot sew, I am useless at craft and I am not the most organised parent in the world. Or even in our house.”
The writer went on to suggest ways to dress up as book character without too much difficulty. I was struck more, though, by the fact that she said it’s World Book Day in the UK and Ireland. If it’s just the British Isles can it legitimately be called World Book Day. Surely it should be everywhere. Mothers’ Day (always called Mothering Sunday when I was a child and we were given cards from Sunday School to take home to Our mummies) and Fathers’ Day (surely and invention of greetings card manufacturers!) vary from country to country but they don’t claim to be “world” days. So I looked it up.
I discovered that the idea came from a Spanish writer, Vicente Clavel Andrés, as a way to honour Miguel de Cervantes, writer or Don Quijote. He suggested the 7th of October, Cervantes’ birthdate, and April 23rd, date of Cervantes’ death. Incidentally some people claim that Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the same date in 2016. However Spain and England used different calendars - Gregorian for Spain and Julian for England - which must have made arranging international meetings difficult, not to mention blowing the minds of modern historians. Besides it seems, according to some sources, that Shakespeare’s death was registered on April 26th, while others say he died on May 3rd. Some people, however, put his birthday at April 23rd. And does it really matter anyway?
Getting back to World Book Day, in 1995 UNESCO decided that World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on April 23rd, because of a loose connection between that date and Cervantes, Shakespeare, Garcilaso de la Vega and various other eminent or prominent writers. But the date seems to vary from country to country.
In Catalonia, never a place to stick to Spanish ways of doing things they appear to combine it with Saint George’s Day, Sant Jordi in Catalan, celebrated since 1436 and involving giving books and roses to the people you love. That way they honour their patron saint and show how cultured they are - multi-tasking or killing two birds with one stone - on April 23rd.
In Sweden they call it Värdsbokdagen (i.e. World Book Day but nothing about copyright) on April 23rd but sometimes it has been moved to the 13th to avoid clashing with Easter. Mind you, personally I see no reason not to give books instead of Easter eggs!
In the British Isles, we’ve made it into a charity event, schoolchildren dressing up and being sponsored on the first Thursday of March each year. School teachers dress up too, showing their pupils what good sports they are. But it seems that we celebrate World Book Night on April 23rd, an event organised by an independent charity, The Reading Room. Both the event and the charity are completely new to me!
And in Kensington, Maryland, USA, they have the International Day of the Book, a street festival, held on the Sunday closest to April 26th.
In Vigo, during our time spent there, we have noticed they have a Book Fair, Feria del Libro, for a week in August, when all the bookshops of the city set up a stall down by the harbour, hoping that people will buy books from them.
Things are gearing up also for the Eurovision Song Contest. Some of my Italian friends are getting a little worked up about their entry. Last year’s contest was cancelled because of Covid but should be going on in Rotterdam in May. It”s already causing controversy:-
“The Orthodox Church of Cyprus has called for the withdrawal of the country’s controversial entry into this year’s Eurovision song contest titled “El Diablo,” charging that the song makes an international mockery of country’s moral foundations by advocating “our surrender to the devil and promoting his worship”.
Oh dear!
I have no idea what is being proposed as our entry. It’s longer than I care to remember since I stopped taking notice of the contest. However, I do wonder if we will be able to send an entrant. After all, we are being told we can’t travel abroad except for essential business purposes. But then, this might class as a legitimate business/work reason. But then again, would any such British entry need to get a visa to go to Holland? Would we have to take part by Zoom? A double-whammy problem caused by Coronavirus and Brexit!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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