Romanian Language Day
Romanian Language Day has been celebrated on August 31 since 2013, following a legislative initiative. The initiators of the law explained that the importance of the Romanian language should not be diminished by the current globalization trend, since the Romanian language is fundamental to national identity, being a prerequisite for the consolidation of a strong and united society. Romanian is the mother tongue or spoken language of many people in Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. A Romance language, Romanian is spoken by 28 million people worldwide and is the most widely spoken Romance language after Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.
Leyla Cheamil, 30.08.2019, 13:36
To mark Romanian Language Day, the Romanian Academy hosts on Saturday a debate dubbed “Our Heritage — Romanian Language”. The Romanian Cultural Institutes abroad are also marking this day through a series of events. Film screenings, Romanian language courses, theatre shows, debates, painting workshops and book fairs are to be held at the Romanian Cultural Institutes in Madrid, Lisbon, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Venice and Chisinau. In Bucharest, this special day is celebrated through the exhibition the Newspaper Kiosk venued by Podul Mogosoaiei Hall on Victory Boulevard. Dedicated to the Romanian language press around the country’s borders, the exhibition is on display between August 29 and September 6, being staged by the Golescu Brothers Institute for the Romanians abroad, in partnership with the Historical Communities Department.
The audience thus has the occasion to read newspapers, magazines and Romanian language publications from Moldova, Bukovina, Herta Land, southern Bessarabia, Voievodina and Hungary. Romanian Language Day has also been celebrated in the Republic of Moldova, starting 1990. The country’s capital, Chisinau, is hosting these days the fourth consecutive edition of the Bookfest Chisinau International Book Fair, that enjoys the participation of the most important publishing houses from Romania and Moldova. The fair is aimed at strengthening cultural dialogue between the editors, authors and readers. (Translated by Elena Enache)
