by VK
Russia will mark the Day of Orthodox Book from February 15 to March 20. The day was set by the Russian Orthodox Church and marks the anniversary of the first Russian printed book, “Apostle” published by Ivan Fedorov on March 14, 1564.
Metropolitant Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chairman of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, said that the Day of Orthodox Book is to attract public attention to problems of reading spiritual and moral literature and “a good old Russian book in general”. Special attention is paid to the young generation, because it is the age when the basis of a man’s future, his views, attitude towards the world, life, to what is going on around him are formed. “It is essential for ideals of spirituality, ethics to be integrated in life of a juvenile man at a young age”, the metropolitan believes. Thus, the church hopes to develop interest in reading ethic literature, bring back numerous groups of educated employed Russians, who stopped reading 20 years ago, despite advanced intellectual level. It would improve intellectual potential and become an essential instrument for preservation and development of the richest culture of Russia, support and improvement of the rich Russian language. Reading classic books is especially useful for development of the Russian language. Unfortunately, young people and adults use slang, polluting the language, resulting in the classic Russian language becoming out of use.
This year, the Day of the Orthodox Book is marked for the third time. The government supported it in all regions last year. It involves all age groups and social classes. Marking will take place in all eparchies, churches and monasteries. Clerics, publishers, writers, scientists, teachers, librarians, students, servicemen and actors will take part. There will be round-table conferences, theme meetings. They were organized to allow people to learn a lot more and have a sense of what a book is and how to work with it. Museums were invited to participate. Many cities will have charity exhibitions and fun-fairs of religious and classic literature.
Moscow will host the most notable activities. The “Give a book to children” charity event will be held with support of the Moscow administration on March 18-20. Children’s books will be collected for social centers. Theater and cinema actors and other well-known figures will take part. It will be organized at the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the Novospassk Monastery, “Sreteniye”, “Pravoslavnoye Slovo”, “Troitskaya Kniga”, “Lavochka Detskoy Knigi”, “Knizhnaya Vystavka” of the Zachatyevsky Monastery”, “Biblio-Globus” and the “Bukva” book network. The Orthodox Church Association is the general sponsor of the event. Publishing centers, charity organizations and individuals may take part by giving books.
The Art Center of Children and Youth in Zelenograd, the Publishing Department and the Synod Office for Young People’s Rights will organize the third Brain-Ring intellectual competition. Winners will be awarded with prizes and certificates.
Over 100,000 religious books will be distributed in regions. The Moscow State University for Printing named after Ivan Fedorov will host a meeting for students planning to become book-publishers and writers to discuss the role of spiritual, ethic books in modern society.
Metropolitan Kliment says that there are few modern secular writers interested in ethic and spiritual values. He noted that there many prefer to write about violence, such books, called thrillers, are very popular, although they cannot form a moral outlook of a man.
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour will host a meeting of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All-Russia and Mayor Sergey Sobyanin with children from large families on March 14. A music and theater play on the role and history of books in Old Russia will be demonstrated. Each family will receive religious books. Information about the event can be found at the official website of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. The website has an interactive map on the events planned in Russian cities and neighbor states.
