Book Day 2021: Did Cervantes and Shakespeare die on the same day?

(CNN Spanish) --

Every April 23rd International Book Day is celebrated, but why was this special day chosen?

UNESCO explains it on its website: April 23 is "a symbolic day" for world literature "because that day in 1616 Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died."

In addition, "the date also coincides with the birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K. Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo", explains the UN entity.

For this reason, in 1995, the UNESCO General Conference, held in Paris, decided "to pay a universal tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of the reading".

Book Day aims to "value the irreplaceable contributions of those who have promoted the social and cultural progress of humanity," says UNESCO.

Did Cervantes and Shakespeare die on the same day?

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But wait a minute.

Did Cervantes and Shakespeare really die on the same day of the same year?

That has always been said, but it might not be entirely true.

The reason?

Certain customs and the calendars used by Spain and Great Britain at that time.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra did not die on April 23, but was buried that day.

In reality, he died the day before, on April 22, 1616.

This is indicated by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain on the commemorative website of the 400th anniversary of the writer's death.

In those times, the custom was to bury the deceased the day after his death - something that continues today - and note the date of burial, not death, on the death certificate, as the EFE agency recalls.

That is why his death went down in history as on April 23, when it really happened on the 22nd.

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And William Shakespeare?

In this case, the references that he died on April 23, 1616 are unequivocal, as the Encyclopedia Britannica says, for example.

However, when the date is mentioned, an important fact is forgotten: the calendar that governed the United Kingdom at that time.

Until 1582 the entire Western world was governed by the Julian calendar, imposed by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.

That year Pope Gregory XII created his own: the Gregorian, which was quickly implemented in Catholic countries such as Spain, France and Portugal, according to Aciprensa.com.

The United Kingdom did not implement the Gregorian calendar until the year 1752, according to this same web page.

That is, in 1616, when the two writers died, both countries were governed by calendars that differed by 10 days and, in the United Kingdom, April 23 was, in Spain (and much of the Western world), May 3. from 1616.

This was also confirmed to CNN en Español by Carlos Mayoral, a Spanish philologist and author of the book

who describes matching the two deaths as "myth, posture and marketing".

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Book Day 2021

Each year, UNESCO and the International Union of Publishers, the International Federation of Booksellers and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions select a world book capital.

The term of the book capital begins every April 23.

This year, the designated city is Guadalajara (Mexico).

According to the UNESCO page, "the program proposed by Guadalajara focuses on three strategic axes: the recovery of public spaces through reading activities in parks and other accessible spaces; social bonding and cohesion, especially through workshops on children's reading and writing; and strengthening neighborhood identity through intergenerational connections, storytelling, and street poetry.

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The cities designated World Book Capital are committed to promoting books and reading and organizing activities throughout the year.

Among the above are:

Madrid, Spain (2001)

Alexandria, Egypt (2002)

New Delhi, India (2003)

Antwerp, Belgium (2004)

Montréal, Canada (2005)

Turin, Italy (2006)

Bogota, Colombia (2007)

Amsterdam, Netherlands (2008)

Beirut, Lebanon (2009)

Ljubljana, Slovenia (2010)

Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011)

Yerevan, Armenia (2012)

Bangkok, Thailand (2013)

Port Harcourt, Nigeria (2014)

Incheon, South Korea (2015)

Wroclaw, Poland (2016)

Conakry, Guinea (2017)

Athens, Greece (2018)

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2019)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2020)

Tbilisi, Georgia (2021)

-- This news has been updated.

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