World Book Day 2025: A Guide to What the Day is All About and How to Celebrate It?

World Book and Copyright Day reminds us every year of the importance of writers, poets, editors, publishers, and every individual involved in creating books and making them reach people worldwide. In today’s fast-paced digital world, where the digital space is replacing everything, it is more than important to emphasise the importance of books in all their glory and understand that there can never be any replacement for the wisdom imparted by books, irrespective of the genre it is written. 

Why is World Book Day Celebrated on the 23rd? 

World Book Day is celebrated every year on the 23rd of April because of the immense importance this specific date holds in the world of literature. One of the legends of English literature, crowned the “Bard of Avon”, died on the 23rd of April.  

Authors Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Both these authors are indispensable to the Spanish Golden Age literature. The former is the author of ‘Don Quixote’, while the latter has contributed significantly to the Incan culture. 

Thus, UNESCO celebrates 23rd April as World Book Day due to its significance tied closely to the world of literature and its history. 

World Book Capital (2001-2025)

Every year, UNESCO picks a place to commemorate World Book Capital. This year, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been picked as the World Book Capital 2025. 

Here is a list of all places chosen as World Book Capital since 2001 up to 2025. 

How to Celebrate World Book Day with your Community?

Here are some ideas that you can execute if you feel like celebrating World Book Day with your near and dear ones, but do not know exactly how to. A person doesn’t have to be the biggest bookworm or book lover to celebrate this day. You just need to have the awareness and willingness to appreciate the culture of books and what it has to offer. 

Create a Book Swap Event 

You do not have to do much other than create a book swap event where people join in with a book of their choice, and swap their favourites with other people. This will promote the spread of different genres of books among people. It will enable people to communicate and hold discussions while stepping out of their comfort zone of what they usually prefer to read. 

There can be an age demographic created where people closer to one another in terms of age can swap their books. For example, kids can share and discuss their favourite child author while adults can swap genres like thriller with romance to create some excitement in the world of book reading. 

Organise a Storytelling Night 

People can gather in a place like a coffee shop or somebody’s place to take the spotlight and recite their favourite bits from their favourite books, or recite a snippet specially created by them. There could be full-fledged healthy discussions and debates about authors, books and poets. People can engage in conversations about background, history, culture and modern-day relevance of the books in the discussion. 

This will be the most memorable celebration of World Book Day, where even people who weren’t into reading books a lot will be influenced to engage in the conversations and be naturally curious about the world of books, authors and literature.