On March 20th in 1991 and again in 1992, a network of storytellers in Sweden held a national story telling day. Little did these passionate tellers realize that their dream of a nation-wide event would morph over the subsequent years into a world-wide celebration.
In 1997, Australian storytellers in Perth organized a five week event that was called the 'Celebration of Story' during which they designated March 20th as the International Day of Oral Narrators. At the same time, other countries such as Mexico and some South American countries were organizing a National Day of Storytellers.
In 2002, again pushed by the Swedish storytelling network, Ratatosk, World Storytelling Day spread to other Scandanavian countries. A year later, Canadian tellers adopted the practice as did tellers in other countries around the world. The national celebration of storytelling was spreading rapidly globally.
In 2013, over 30 countries on 5 continents now hold national World Storytelling Day celebrations on or about March 20th each year.
World Storytelling Day has adopted a symbolic logo created by Mats Rehnman of Stockholm. You will see Mats' logo now proudly displayed by many of the storytelling groups in your community during their annual celebrations. Here is the logo:
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