Year-Long Reading Festival

Photo courtesy: momstownbarrie

Reading is rapidly becoming a lost art. With television, movies, computers; and, other techno devices I have absolutely no knowledge about becoming so popular, the quiet enjoyment of a good book is fast becoming a thing of the past.

While none of these inventions are necessarily evil, they do take time away from a good read where everyone and everything comes to life in your imagination. No movie, television program, or video game is ever as richly detailed as my version. That's why I never watch a movie if I've already read the book. No movie on screen ever lives up to the one played in my mind as I read the book.

Imagine my delight to find that reading is being celebrated with a year-long festival in the Baltic State of Estonia. Everywhere, people are participating in special events to promote reading. My kind of festival.

In the town of Haapsalu, the celebration took a unique turn. The people of the community wanted to do something novel that tied in with the theme of reading. The townspeople committed to spend five days publicly reading the Bible from start to finish. The feat took place in the Estonian cathedral of St. John, with 150 locals taking a turn. Tiit Salumae, the pastor at the church, says the project was designed to reawaken an interest in the Bible, which was originally written to be read aloud.

Way to go, Estonia!