International Mother Language Day 2024

International Mother Language Day is an international awareness or commemorative observance and is optional in the calendar.

International Mother Language Day is observed on 21 February and has a particularly important connection with the Bengali Language Movement. On 21 February 1952, students and activists in Dhaka, then part of East Pakistan, protested for recognition of Bangla as a state language; police firing killed several demonstrators, and their memory became a powerful symbol of linguistic rights. Bangladesh later proposed an international day celebrating mother languages, and UNESCO approved the initiative at its 1999 General Conference. The observance has been held worldwide since 2000. It celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity and stresses that people learn, preserve knowledge and express identity through language. The day also draws attention to endangered languages and to multilingual education, especially the value of giving children early education in a language they understand while enabling them to learn additional languages.

The Bengali Language Movement arose amid disagreement over the status of languages in Pakistan after Partition. On 21 February 1952, students demonstrating in Dhaka faced police gunfire, and the deaths became a defining memory of the movement. The Shaheed Minar memorial and annual commemorations in Bangladesh connect language with dignity and democratic participation. The day does not mean one language should replace another; its international message is the opposite.

UNESCO adopted the proposal in 1999 and global observances began in 2000. Schools, libraries and cultural groups celebrate storytelling, endangered-language documentation, translation and mother-tongue-based multilingual education. Preserving languages requires speakers, books, digital tools and educational opportunity, not only ceremonial speeches. The date is fixed at 21 February and the annual theme is announced separately.

Protects linguistic diversity and the dignity of learning and expressing identity in one's mother tongue.

Language storytelling, multilingual education programmes, translation, literary readings and preservation of endangered languages.

Observed worldwide on 21 February; rooted in the 1952 Bangla Language Movement in Dhaka, adopted by UNESCO in 1999.