Holidays of Georgia - Mother Language Day

Georgian is the oldest language Today it is spoken by more than four million people Georgian was the native language of the people of Iberia, an ancient kingdom that existed on the site of modern Georgia The Georgian language consists of seventeen dialects All of them have developed historically The Kakheti and Kartli dialects formed the basis of the literary Georgian language There are also three dialects that are preserved today outside the country, and were developed in Azerbaijan (Ingiloi dialect), in Turkey (Imerkhev dialect), in Iran (Fereydan dialect) The literary and written language developed after the adoption of Christianity by the Georgian people (in the 4th century AD) The alphabet was created in the 5th century AD, based on Aramaic and Greek There are three types of Georgian writing: an ancient script that developed at the same time as the alphabet appeared - mrglovani, a church script - nuskhuri, a civil script - mkhedruli Georgian writing is included in the UNESCO list of cultural heritage sites The prerequisites for the creation of Mother Language Day are the events of 1978 Then, being one of the union republics within the USSR, Georgia lost the status of the Georgian language as a state language, in accordance with the adoption of a new Constitution in the Soviet Union (according to which there was only one state language - Russian) However, after negotiations with the Moscow government, the First Secretary of Georgia managed to return the status of the Georgian language Georgian Language Day has become a public holiday since 1990 Every year it is celebrated on April 14, and has the name - Mother Language Day The meaning of the holiday, first of all, is to honor Georgian traditions, maintain the literary language, writing, and spread the Georgian language The events held in the country cover more than just one day Every year, from April 12 to May 5, a festival is held in Georgia, the purpose of which is to popularize the Georgian language, identify language problems, and emphasize the importance of preserving all types of writing, dialects, and national literary works The festival is held among young people, schoolchildren and students In addition, Olympiads, conferences, and seminars are held throughout the country Cultural events also include concerts, literary and poetry readings