World Storytelling Day 2022: History, celebrations, and more
World Storytelling Day is celebrated every year on March 20 to recognize and honor the beautiful art of oral storytelling. Oral storytelling is a great way to share stories and experiences with the audience through the use of facial expressions, voice tones, and different gestures. Storytelling helps foster a bond with the listener, get creative, and visualize a beautiful world. Here's more about it.
History of the day
The day first started out as a national storytelling day or Alla berattares dag in Sweden in 1991. Later, in 1997, Australian storytellers celebrated a five-week-long storytelling event that later came to be known as International Day of Oral Narrators. In 2002, Scandinavians created a storytelling web network called Ratatosk. The network helped the day spread to Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Estonia.
Popularity across the world
The idea of having a day dedicated to storytelling started gaining popularity and even reached countries like Canada. By 2003, the day came to be celebrated as World Storytelling Day and more such events started to be organized across the world.
Theme for this year
A theme is assigned to World Storytelling Day every year around which the storyteller needs to weave his or her story. Themes are normally proposed on the official Facebook group and are voted upon. This year's theme is "Lost and Found" which is about telling stories about the things we lost in the past and the hope that they will come back.
Stories are extremely powerful
Storytelling has the power to transport us to another world. Stories fuel our imagination, help us to understand the world, and inspire us to be better versions of ourselves. They are a great way to gain knowledge and pass it down from generation to generation. They help develop empathy by letting the reader or the listener into the character's world and feeling their problems.
Why people love storytelling?
This ancient art of storytelling is loved by most people as it promotes active listening. It's fun to see and listen to a professional storyteller and imagine yourself in multiple lives and situations. Storytellers use facial expressions while telling the story, which is fun to watch. Storytelling sessions are also a great way to introduce your kid to the world of books and stories.
How to celebrate the day?
If you are looking forward to celebrating World Storytelling Day, then call some neighborhood children and tell them the stories that you have heard from your grandparents. You can even attend a professional storytelling event or a literary festival and hear different storytellers and their experiences. You can also get creative and write a story yourself and read it out to someone.
