You may never have heard of it, but International Translation Day is celebrated every year on 30th September on the feast of St. Jerome.  St Jerome was the first person to translate the Bible into Latin from Hebrew, making it accessible for the first time to a far wider audience than ever before. St Jerome is considered to be the patron saint of translators.

The celebrations have been promoted by FIT (the International Federation of Translators) ever since it was set up in 1953.

In 1991 FIT launched the idea of an officially recognised International Translation Day to show solidarity of the worldwide translation community in an effort to promote the much under rated translation profession in different countries.

It’s a great opportunity to display pride in a profession that is becoming increasingly essential in the era of progressing globalisation, and also to recognise and show appreciation to the hard working translators all over the world.

International Translation Day provides an opportunity for translators, students, publishers, booksellers, bloggers and reviewers to gather together and debate significant issues and developments within the sector, to discuss mutual challenges and to celebrate their success.

In the UK, it was originally hosted at Free World Centre.  International Translation Day has gathered momentum and continues to grow from strength to strength.  It’s been hosted at the British Library since 2013.

So here’s to all of the hard working, dedicated translators that enable us to be able to communicate effectively and break down language barriers all over the world!

The post Happy International Translation day! appeared first on Kwintessential UK.