Press Day in Belarus

This date traces its history back to the first edition of Lenin’s Pravda.Press Day is celebrated according to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of May 2, 1996. No. 156 On the establishment in the Republic of Belarus of a holiday - Press Day, which is celebrated annually on May 5.

The civilized world celebrates International Press Freedom Day on May 3. This fact is unknown to the majority of the Belarusian people, and the republic continues to celebrate the ordinary Press Day on the 5th.

This date, as you know, traces its history back to the first publication of Lenin’s Pravda in 1912. Although the Belarusian press has much deeper roots, and memorable dates abound. On August 6, 1517, Francis Skaryna published his first book in Prague. In the XIX century there were the first attempts to publish periodicals in the Belarusian language - in 1861-1862 there were 4 issues of the newspaper "Gutarka Two Susedo", in 1862-1863 "Gutarka" and "Muzhytskaya Pra da" (7 issues). At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first regular Belarusian newspapers appeared - "Our Share" and "Our Niva". But, despite this, the official holiday for the Belarusian press is still the day of the publication of the newspaper Pravda.

An interesting fact: May 5, 1581 in Volhynia, in the Ostrozh printing house of Ivan Fedorov, Andrei Rymsha's calendar "Chronology" was published in the Old Belarusian dialect. By each month, poems were printed - the first separate poetry edition.

It was also the first printed calendar of the Slavs.

But anyway, all people associated with the printing and publishing craft have two reasons to raise glasses, glasses and plastic cups in early May: May 3 – “For freedom of the press!” and May 5 – simply “For printing!”