On Friday last, April 20, Chinese Language Day was observed by the United Nations, one of seven such annual observances. International Mother Language Day has been observed each year on February 21, since the year 2000; and there is a day for each of the six official working languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish. There is also an observance for International Translation Day.
The language days were established in 2010 ‘to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity’ as well as ‘to promote equal use of all six languages’ at the UN. All of the UN duty stations around the world celebrate these observances. April 20 falls during Guyu (translated to grain rain), a traditional Chinese solar term. It pays tribute to Cangjie, a very important figure in ancient China, who it is said, invented the Chinese characters used in the written language 5 centuries ago.
There is a myth that on the day he invented the characters all the deities cried, and the sky rained millet, a grain. The day was celebrated at the UN Headquarters in New York on Friday but preceded by a screening on Thursday evening of Masters in the Forbidden City, a film about Beijing’s largest ancient palace complex, home of emperors, 1420 – 1912. Events held on Friday were “Spirits Contained in the Chinese Poetries” a lecture by Li Bo; a panel discussion, “Education in China and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals”, and “Chinese Peking Opera”, a lecture by Li Mo.
