World Storytelling Day
Next: March 20, 2027
Tell a story, out loud.
The story
Where it comes from
World Storytelling Day began in Sweden in 2001. At a storytelling festival that year, the storyteller Ulf Ärnström and his friends wanted a recurring day on which storytellers everywhere would tell stories on a shared theme, and decided to 'think big right away'. They chose the March equinox, when day and night are the same length, and 20 March became the day. It spread to the rest of Scandinavia in 2002, then to Canada and France, and by 2005 storytellers in 25 countries had joined.
How it's celebrated
Storytellers around the world tell and listen to stories in libraries, schools, theatres, cafés and homes, often on a theme that storytellers choose together online each year. The day celebrates the spoken art of storytelling, so anyone can take part: tell a family story over dinner, or ask an older relative for one of theirs.
Did you know
- Its Swedish name is Världsberättardagen.
- More than 13,000 storytellers follow the online group where each year's theme is discussed and chosen.
- The day is now based at Sagobygden, 'the Land of Legends', in Ljungby, the Swedish town where it began.
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