INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE BOOK

April twenty-third is a symbolic day in the world literature. Declared as International Day of the Book by UNESCO in 1995, this celebration of books and literature draws its inspiration from a Catalan tradition, the Festival of the Rose.

Legend has it that Saint George, Patron Saint of Catalonia (Spain) and international knight- errant slew a dragon about to devour a beautiful Catalan princess. From the dragon's blood sprouted a rosebush, from which the hero plucked the prittiest rose for the princess. Hence the traditional Rose Festival celebrated in Barcelona since the Middle Ages to honor chivalry and love.

In 1923 this lover's "festa" bacame even more poetic when it merged with "el dia del llibre", or The Day of the Book, to mark the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, the two giants of literary history, on April 23, 1616.

THE LEGEND OF SAINT GEORGE