World Poetry Day is celebrated. Declared by UNESCO in 1999, the aim of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world - in other words, to 'give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements'. For many years, the event had been celebrated in October.
Indeed, the latter half of the 20th century saw October 15th as the earmarked day, to coincide with the birthday of epic Roman poet Virgil. As such, many national poetry days are still celebrated in October, such as that of the UK on October 8th. In conjunction with 2010 as the year of biodiversity, this year's theme for World Poetry Day is, 'The Words of Nature, the Nature of Words'.
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