International Translation Day
Next: September 30, 2027
For everyone who carries meaning across a border.
The story
Where it comes from
30 September is the feast of Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century and is the patron saint of translators. The International Federation of Translators has promoted the day since 1953 and formally launched it in 1991; in 2017 the UN General Assembly recognised it as International Translation Day.
How it's celebrated
Translator and interpreter associations hold conferences and award prizes; the UN runs its St Jerome Translation Contest; publishers spotlight translated books. It is a good day to thank the person who makes your meetings, subtitles or medical appointments work in a second language.
Did you know
- The UN works in six official languages and its documents are translated into all of them; interpreters at the General Assembly work in shifts of about twenty minutes because of the mental load.
- The most translated book after the Bible is thought to be The Little Prince, in over 500 languages and dialects.
- Machine translation is now used for billions of sentences a day, but literary, legal and medical work still depends on human translators.
Coming up next
- National Day of the People's Republic of China · October 1, 2027
- International Coffee Day · October 1, 2027
- International Day of Older Persons · October 1, 2027
- World Smile Day · October 1, 2027
- International Day of Non-Violence · October 2, 2027
- Hari Batik Nasional · October 2, 2027