World Poetry Day

World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March. It was declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) at their Paris conference November 1999, "with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard". The first international celebration on March 21 took place in the year 2000. Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing, and teaching of poetry throughout the world and, as the original UNESCO declaration says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional, and international poetry movements". In the 20th century the world community celebrated World Poetry Day on the 15th of October. The date was chosen to honor Pennsylvania Poet Laureate Ralph Cheyney. The tradition to keep an October date for national or international poetry day celebrations still holds in many countries. The United Kingdom generally uses the first Thursday in October, but elsewhere a different October, or even sometimes a November date, is celebrated.