Can Sales, Ca n’Oleo and the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera will host different events.

The IEB will focus its activity on Palma’s Plaça del Mercat square.

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World Book Day

Today, Tuesday the 23rd of April, World Book Day is celebrated like every year, a day devoted to culture in which the focus is on literature, books and activities to promote reading. The Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports, through the Directorate General of Culture, organises activities in its affiliated centres, such as the Public Library of Palma and the Archaeological Museum of Eivissa and Formentera, and others as part of the “Viu la cultura” programme, which facilitates the programming of educational activities in schools in the Balearic Islands to promote reading among children and young people at different educational stages.

At the headquarters of the Directorate General of Culture, in the Ca n’Oleo building, a book stand with its publications will be set up in the courtyard. The “Viu la cultura” (Live Culture) programme has made it possible for reading promotion activities to be held in different schools all over the Balearic Islands on the 23rd of April, such as the theatrical show Rondalletes 0-99, the storytellers Daniela la Pirata, Viva las uñas de colores, La gallinita roja, Los músicos de Bremen and Cuentos para quererte mejor, and workshops such as El mundo del rotulista de cómics (The World of the Comic Book Labeller).

On Ibiza, the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera will set up a book stall on Paseo de Vara de Rey, where museum publications specialising in history and archaeology will be on sale. This year they will offer the latest releases (issue 84 of the series “Trabajos del Museo Arqueológico de Ibiza y Formentera” (Works of the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera), issue 2 of “Monografías del Museo Arqueológico de Eivissa y Formentera” (Monographs of the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera), the guide Tesoros de la necrópolis del Puig des Molins and issue 23 of the magazine Fites (Treasures of the necropolis of Puig des Molins). The stall will be open from 9 am to 8 pm, and will offer a 10% discount. Likewise, the little ones can enjoy a children’s activity throughout the week at the Puig des Molins Monographic Museum (via Romana, 31, Ibiza), which will also be held on the same day on the 23rd at the Vara de Rey stop.

The Public Library of Palma “Can Sales” will hold the ninth edition of “Words that feed”, a solidarity action organised in collaboration with the NGO Mallorca Sense Fam. Throughout the day the books provided by the library, from donations, will be exchanged for food and other products brought by citizens. Afterwards, Mallorca Sense Fam will pass them on to the neediest people.

The first edition of “Words that feed” was held in 2015 and more than 1,000 kilograms of food were collected. Mallorca Sense Fam is a non-profit association that currently helps more than 200 families in Mallorca, providing them with food and necessities. They also count on the help of the Casal de Barrio Puig de Sant Pere, with which the library actively collaborates.

With this way of celebrating Book Day, focused on solidarity, the library reaffirms its commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda (SDG), as an active and essential service in its environment, specifically SDG 1, “End Poverty”, and SDG 2, “Zero Hunger”.

Throughout the week of 22-26 April the library has programmed other activities around the celebration of Book Day. The image of the commemorative poster, by illustrator Blanca Jaume, will be hung on the façade of the library, and bookmarks and reusable cloth bags with this image will be handed out. On Tuesday 23rd, in the afternoon, in the children’s room, the company Viatge al Món de n’Aina will perform a storytelling show entitled La heroica leyenda de Sant Jordi (The Heroic Legend of Saint George). On Thursday 25th, a new edition of “Biblioteca Humana” will be held, and on Friday 26th, as part of the Writers’ Library cycle, you can listen to the lecture “How to be a Writer and not die trying”, by the Galician writer Manel Loureiro.

In addition, the Institut d’Estudis Baleàrics (IEB) will take part in the celebration of Sant Jordi, Book Day, with a series of diverse cultural and creative activities that will take place on a stand located throughout the day in Palma’s Market Square. The aim of the activities will be twofold: to promote the reading and consumption of literary works in Catalan among the young people of the Balearic Islands and to stimulate the creation and dissemination of online content in Catalan. Therefore, among the different proposals of the IEB this year are readings by Balearic authors, the recording of the podcast “Pati de butaques” with Júlia Mérida, the announcement of the winners of the literary video-recommendations competition “Per Sant Jordi, mou la llengua” and the Bookface competition in Catalan, as well as setting up a bookshelf throughout the day with information and literary resources presented by this institution.

The first activity to take place at 1:30 p.m. will be readings by Balearic authors, promoted by the Centro de Catalán de Palma. The authors invited to the event, who will read a literary fragment chosen by themselves from one of their works, include Àngels Cardona, Damià Rotger, Maria Victòria Secall, Laura Riera, Àngel Terron, Emili Sánchez-Rubio and Pere Perelló Nomdedéu.

In addition, during these days, the area of Promotion of the Use of Catalan of the IEB has carried out the contest of literary video recommendations “Per Sant Jordi, mou la llengua”, directed to young readers, consisting of recording a video reading a fragment of a literary work in Catalan. The competition was launched in mid-March and the winners will be announced this Tuesday during the recording of a podcast with Júlia Mérida, which will take place at 6.30 p.m. at the IEB bookshelf.

During the recording of the podcast “Pati de butaques”, the digital creator Júlia Mérida will interview Aina Fullana, author of Els dies bonus and Joan Fullana, who has adapted the work to the theatrical format. In addition, very young authors such as Laura Taltavull, finalist of the Art Jove awards, and Sílvia Rigo, winner of the AMIC-Ficcions awards in the Balearic Islands category, will also take part.

Finally, the Bookface Competition in Catalan, promoted by the Manacor Catalan Centre, will remain open until 26 April, in parallel with the events scheduled around the Book Day 2024 bookshelf.

World Book and Copyright Day is celebrated every 23 April. The reason is that it was on 23 April 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. Other eminent writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo were also born or died on 23 April. For this reason, this symbolic date for world literature was chosen by the UNESCO General Conference in 1995 to pay a worldwide tribute to books and their authors and as a way of encouraging reading. Reading is a cultural right and a social right, which is associated with the ability to better interpret the world and has an impact on the well-being and health of citizens.