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Mar20 Fun Holiday – World Storytelling Day

World Storytelling Day is celebrated globally every year on the March Equinox.

A mother reading a book with her son in a park.

Gather around with your children or friends and tell them stories you heard or read as a kid.

©iStockphoto.com/Solovyova

The unofficial holiday celebrates the tradition of oral storytelling and encourages participants to tell and listen to stories from different cultures and in different languages.

Started in Sweden

Story Telling Day wasn’t always celebrated globally. The first such day was observed in Sweden in the early 1990s and was called Alla Berättares Dag, or All Narrators Day. Soon storytellers around the world picked up the holiday and it has now become a global “celebration of oral storytelling.” Each celebration since 2004 has a theme associated with it, including strong women, dreams, neighbors, water, and monsters and dragons.

People can tap into historical and cultural stories and spread them globally or make up their own new stories.

Celebration of Spring

The March Equinox is known as the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. The day is considered by astronomers and people in many cultures in the Northern Hemisphere as the first day of spring.

How to Celebrate?

  • Participate in your local storytelling event.
  • If there is none near you, maybe organize your own event?
  • Have an older person tell you a story from their childhood.
  • Encourage the children in your life to tell stories.

Did You Know...

...that according to the Guinness Book of Records, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust is the longest novel ever written? First published in 1913, this 7 volume novel has a total of 9,609,000 characters.

World Storytelling Day Observances

Fun Holiday: World Storytelling Day Observances
YearWeekdayDateName
2024WedMar 20World Storytelling Day
2025ThuMar 20World Storytelling Day
2026FriMar 20World Storytelling Day
2027SatMar 20World Storytelling Day
2028MonMar 20World Storytelling Day
2029TueMar 20World Storytelling Day
2030WedMar 20World Storytelling Day
2031ThuMar 20World Storytelling Day
2032SatMar 20World Storytelling Day
2033SunMar 20World Storytelling Day

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