World Puppetry Day is March 21. The idea came from the
puppet theater artist Javad Zolfaghari from
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. In 2000 at the XVIII Congress of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette, (
UNIMA
UNIMA (''Union Internationale de la Marionnette'' - ''International Puppetry Association'') was founded in Prague in 1929 (the then Czechoslovak magazine Loutkář was UNIMA's first official journal in years 1929–1930). In 1981, the French pup ...
) in
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...
, he made the proposal for discussion. Two years later, at a meeting of the International Council of
UNIMA
UNIMA (''Union Internationale de la Marionnette'' - ''International Puppetry Association'') was founded in Prague in 1929 (the then Czechoslovak magazine Loutkář was UNIMA's first official journal in years 1929–1930). In 1981, the French pup ...
in June 2002 in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, the date of the celebration was identified. The first celebration was in 2003.
Each year the day comes with a theme. In 2022, the theme was "The Sea" encouraging puppeteers to celebrate the day using some form of that theme.
World Puppetry Day is celebrated by puppet festivals, donating to puppet organizations, making puppets, or watching a puppet show. Some communities will put on puppet shows in honor of the day reminding people of this versatile and dying art form.
Puppets have been around for almost 4000 years in almost every civilization. Today puppets come in all shapes and sizes and are used to tell different stories.
See also
*
UNIMA
UNIMA (''Union Internationale de la Marionnette'' - ''International Puppetry Association'') was founded in Prague in 1929 (the then Czechoslovak magazine Loutkář was UNIMA's first official journal in years 1929–1930). In 1981, the French pup ...
*
Puppetry
*
Puppeteer
*
Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre (KIPT) Kenya Institute of Puppet Theatre also known as KIPT is a Kenyan non-governmental and non-profit technical advisory and management community based theatre institute, which was founded in 2007.
KIPT uses puppetry, participatory educational theatre a ...
References
External links
UNIMA Official Website
Puppetry
March observances
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