March 20 is World Storytelling Day
(Credit: Mats Rehnman – World Storytelling Day logo)
World Storytelling Day from Anne E Stewart on Vimeo.
World Storytelling Day from Rodivision on Vimeo.
March 20 is World Storytelling Day (“a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling”), an idea that began back in Sweden in 1991-1992 as "Alla berattares dag" (All storytellers day) and has spread throughout the world, including to Australia and Latin American countries in the late 1990s, to Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Lithuania in 2002, and to Canada and other countries in 2003, culminating in participation from 25 countries on 5 continents for World Storytelling Day 2005 with even more participation in 2006. Here is a list of agreed upon themes for World Storytelling Day dating back to 2004:
- 2004 – Birds
- 2005 – Bridges
- 2006 – The Moon
- 2007 – The Wanderer
- 2008 – Dreams
- 2009 – Neighbours
- 2010 – Light and Shadow
- 2011 – Water
- 2012 – Trees
- 2013 – Fortune and Fate
- 2014 – Monsters and Dragons
- 2015 – Wishes
The 2015 Toronto Storytelling Festival runs from March 19 to 29, 2015. Several Toronto Public Library branches (Pape/Danforth 2-3p.m., Long Branch 2-3p.m., Runnymede 2-3pm, Morningside 2-3p.m., Dufferin/St.Clair 11a.m.-12noon, North York Central Library 2-3p.m., and Richview 2-3p.m.) are participating in Storyfire on Saturday, March 21, 2015 to help kick off the 2015 festival. Please contact the library branch of interest for additional information.
Storytelling can be used in different situations and various contexts and take different forms (i.e. digital, oral, written etc.). Consider borrowing some of these examples of storytelling resources from Toronto Public Library collections:
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