World Book Day 2009

When is World Book Day? There's a question! The answer is that it depends on where in the world you are.
You could be forgiven for believing that World Book Day is celebrated by all participating countries on the same day, couldn't you?  Well, here's a thing!   If you are in France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, India, Australia or indeed any country where UNESCO has a foothold, it is celebrated on 23rd April every year.   If you live in the UK and Ireland, World Book Day is on March 5th.  Explain that one to me! 
The choice of April 23rd is deliberate.  Why might it be a relevant and appropriate date, I wonder?  What could possibly be the reason behind choosing April 23rd?  Well, let's think about it for a moment.  World Book Day celebrates books, yes?  Books are written by authors so perhaps a suitable day would be a day upon which a very famous book was first published?  No?  Okay, so perhaps a date when the first book was printed?  No?  Then maybe the date when a famous author died or was born?  Now you're talking!  Yes!  I wonder? Who might qualify as a world famous author?  Who has had books translated into hundreds of languages?  Who has written works which have stood the test of time?  Who would be the first name on international lists of all-time greats?  No, children, I'm sorry, JK Rowling is not the correct answer! Well, I wonder which famous authors died on April 23rd?  A quick search and we find that there are three world famous authors who died on the same day in fact in the same year: Spanish authors, Miguel Cervantes and Garcilaso De La Vega; and our very own William Shakespeare, all in 1616.  Not only this but Shakespeare was born on the same day as well.  Blimey O'Reilly!  Luckily for him there was a 52 year gap in between!

Well, let's try to find out what conspicuous event took place on March 5th, shall we?  Well............er...................umm.................Ah ha!  Joseph Stalin died..................and sterling fell below $2 for the first time ever in 1976!  Now I understand;  it must be the exchange rate!  Of course, how silly of me!  Easter is determined by the cycles of the moon and World Book Day is determined by the cost of the US Dollar.

Needless to say we will be marking World Book Day on Shakespeare's day!  Worry not, the children will receive their book tokens on Dollar day.