* The author is part of the community of La Vanguardia readers
Possibly, upon reaching April 23, many people will wonder about the reasons why Book and Rose Day is celebrated.
For the rose festival we must refer to the legend, while for the book festival the story began less than a century ago and the facts are true.
Regarding the legend of Rose Day for Sant Jordi, we should move to the town of Montblanc and go back to the 13th century, when, according to legend, there was a terrible dragon that wreaked havoc among men and beasts.
For this reason, the citizens, in order to contain it, each year chose by lottery an inhabitant who they handed over to the monster so that it could devour him and calm his bloodthirsty desires.
One year that day, when the draw for the sacrifice was held, the person who had to give herself to the monster for sacrifice was none other than the king’s daughter, which caused a great shock among the population, since there was the dilemma of facing the dragon. or hand over the princess for sacrifice.
A knight named Jordi appeared in the town to confront the dragon and avoid the sacrifice. He faced the beast and managed not only to defeat but to kill it, leaving the population free from such a nefarious enemy.
Legend has it that in the place where the dragon died and shed its blood, a rose bush with red flowers was born. The knight offered the princess the flowers that sprouted and, from that moment, the rose became a symbol of love after victory and, over the years, a tradition in which as proof of love a rose is offered to the princess. loved person.
As for the beginning of the book day festival, the idea came from the writer Vicent Clavel i Andrés, born in Valencia in 1888, who, at just 14 years old, started working at the republican newspaper El Pueblo, which It had seen the light in Valencia in 1891, when Clavel was barely three years old.
Clavel collaborated in the newspaper with Blasco Ibáñez until his departure to Madrid where, starting in 1913, he collaborated in the editorial offices of El Radical and El País. Returning to Valencia, his hometown, he founded the Cervantes publishing house in 1916.
His literary interests led him to move to Barcelona in 1920 to found the Casa de Valencia and re-found the Cervantes publishing house with Ferrán Maristany. Between 1918 and 1923 he entered the Official Book Chamber as CEO from which he suggested the convenience of creating Book Day to encourage reading among citizens, organizing a party for its promotion in Catalonia.
The proposal was well received and they decided to celebrate the first edition of Book Day approved in 1926 by King Alfonso XIII, which was celebrated on October 7, 1927.
That day the main bookstores in the city took out rudimentary counters on the street and, among other newspapers, La Vanguardia, on page 31, announced the bookstores and publishers that were participating in the event.
Given the success of the Book Day event, they decided to take advantage of the celebration of the Ibero-American Exposition of Seville and the International Exhibition of Barcelona to repeat the celebration of Book Day on October 7 in 1928 and in 1929 to present the editorial news. of the moment.
In 1930 the first controversy was born in which the day of celebration of Book Day was discussed. Since, although there were discrepancies with the day of Miguel de Cervantes’ birth, however, not with that of his death, on April 22, 1616 at the age of 68 and buried on the 23rd, the date of the death of several of the writers who have marked a milestone with their writings within world literature, such as William Shakespeare.
This fact led UNESCO in 1995, at the proposal of the International Union of Publishers, to choose April 23 as Book and Intellectual Property Day, to promote literary culture and at the same time protect the intellectual property of writers.
