从世界各地来看，读书节已成为当代社会的文化景观，而且是最近20年的新风潮。不过，现代意义上的第一个“读书节”，最早可追溯到1926年西班牙国王首次设立的“西班牙自由节”，并把伟大作家塞万提斯的生日10月7日作为这个节日的庆祝日。
From all over the world, Reading Festival has become the cultural landscape of contemporary society, and it is a new trend in recent 20 years. However, the first "Reading Festival" in the modern sense, the earliest can be traced back to 1926, the king of Spain for the first time to set up a "Spanish freedom festival", and the great writer Cervantes's birthday in October 7th as a celebration of the holiday.
1930年庆祝活动移到4月23日――塞万提斯的忌日，碰巧这一天也是加泰罗尼亚地区大众节日“圣乔治节”。传说中勇士乔治屠龙救公主，并获得了公主回赠的礼物――一本书，象征着知识与力量。每到这一天，加泰罗尼亚的妇女们就给丈夫或男朋友赠送一本书，男人们则会回赠一枝玫瑰花。由此相沿成习，如今每到这一天，书籍减价10%，玫瑰花的价格则陡然上涨。
Celebration on 1930 to April 23rd -- the anniversary of the death of Cervantes, to this day is also the Catalonia area public holiday "St. George's day". The legend goes that the knight George slew a dragon and saved a princess, and was granted a gift in return: a book, representing knowledge and power. Every year on this day, Catalonia women will give a book to their husband or boyfriend, the men will give a rose. Thus become a custom through long time usage, and now every day, the book price by 10%, prices rose sharply rise.
世界读书日就来源于此。巧合的是，这天是著名作家塞万提斯、莎士比亚、维加3位著名文学大师的辞世纪念日，又是美国作家纳博科夫、法国作家莫里斯・德鲁昂、冰岛诺贝尔文学奖得主拉克斯内斯等多位文学家的生日。巧合之外，则是人们对书籍的热爱和对阅读重要性的深层认识。主旋律都是一样的：无论是年老还是年轻，无论是贫穷还是富有，无论是患病还是健康，都能享受阅读的乐趣，都能尊重和感谢为人类文明作出巨大贡献的文学、文化、科学思想大师们，都能保护知识产权。
World Book Day comes from this. Coincidentally, this is the famous writer Cervantes died, Shakespeare Vega, 3 famous literary masters of the day, and Nabokov, French writer USA writer Maurice de Rouen, Iceland Nobel prize winner Laks Ness and many other writers' day. Coincidentally, is that people love of books and a deep understanding of the importance of reading. The main theme is the same: whether old or young, whether rich or poor, whether it is sick or healthy, can enjoy the pleasure of reading, respect and gratitude can make great contributions to human civilization, literature, culture, scientific thinking gurus, can protect the intellectual property rights.
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