jeremy butterfield

International Mother Language Day

21st Feb 2023

What and when is International Mother Language Day? It’s a United Nations initiative first celebrated in 2000. It falls on 21 February each year. The day aims to make people more aware of how many living languages there are and to encourage multilingual education based on someone’s own language, the… Read More

National Backwards Day

31st Jan 2023

Able was I ere I saw Elba.  !Day Backwards National of anniversary sixtieth the for piece this writing am I. That’s right. This day of fun and pranks, National Backwards Day, 31 January, intended to get children in particular thinking creatively and box proverbial the outside, was inaugurated in 3691. Read More

Antarctica Day

1st Dec 2022

This Thursday, 1 December, marks the annual Antarctica Day. If you’re wondering why such a day exists, its raison d’être is to celebrate the signing in 1959 of the Antarctic Treaty by the twelve countries then actively exploring the continent. The treaty recognised that this, the… Read More

Advent and Advent Calendars

1st Dec 2022

“The Lord Will Come and not be Slow”(John Milton) Ah, Advent! The season when children’s faces and some adults’ faces, too – mine, anyway – light up while, day by day, they open whatever kind of Advent calendar has come their way. I vividly remember, aged… Read More

Pop Goes the Weasel: the magical language of nursery rhymes

17th Nov 2022

When we are ickle, words can cast magic spells. Think Rain, rain, go away.Come again another day. And when we are small, each new word unlocks a new world of experience. “What’s a weasel, Dad?” When we are tiny, nursery rhymes do both. *** And they… Read More

Autumn traditions and their lexicon

27th Sep 2022

For convenience, the weather people kickstart autumn by inaugurating it on 1 September. But the first astronomical day of autumn fell this year on 23 September, the date of the autumn equinox. Either way, autumn is now well and truly here, as… Read More

European Day of Languages

26th Sep 2022

Monday 26 September marks The European Day of Languages. It was launched in 2001 by the Council of Europe at the end of the Year of Languages, which was jointly organized with the European Union (EU). The day aims to encourage language learning, multilingualism and cultural… Read More

National Radio Day

20th Aug 2022

20 August marks National Radio Day, a celebration on the calendar since the early 1990s. Its organizers enjoin us to savour to the full this overlooked everyday miracle of science. Many readers of this blog will have their favourite programme(s). I certainly do; I wake up every morning to the… Read More

Bastille Day

14th Jul 2022

Allons enfants de la patrie… July brings us two major celebrations of liberty: the Fourth of July for U.S. independence and ten days later, French Bastille Day, 14 July, known in France as le quatorze juillet and never as Jour de la Bastille. But what exactly does it commemorate? And… Read More