The exhibition of books and magazines for children and youth of national minorities living in Slovakia is a chamber “celebration” of two holidays. International Mother Tongue Day (February 21st) and International Children's Book Day (April 2nd).
There are 13 officially recognized national minorities that speak their mother tongue (other than Slovak) in Slovakia:
Bulgarian National Minority Czech National Minority Croatian National Minority
Hungarian National Minority Moravian National Minority German National Minority
Polish National Minority Roma National Minority Rusyn National Minority
Russian National Minority Serbian National Minority Ukrainian National Minority
Jewish National Minority Vietnamese National Minority
The mother tongue is more than just a language that we speak. It is a language to laugh, cry, feel and think. We express emotions differently than in foreign language – somehow lighter, more authentic. It is therefore natural that national minorities living in Slovakia protect their mother tongue as a rare part of their identity. Like the legacy of the ancestors they pass on to the next generation, to the children. Children's books and magazines published in ethnic languages make an important contribution. Some of the larger national minorities also have their own publishing houses in Slovakia, others only publish magazines and build book funds from books imported from their home country or from their translations into Slovak.
At the exhibition you can find picture books, legends, books for youth, fairy tales or folder books. And although they are written in different languages, they have a lot in common. In every fairy tale, justice always prevails, evil is punished, the truth eventually turns out to be true, and a lot of good people can fit everywhere. Like in Grandpa's lost glove, where many different animals slowly found their home... A little mouse, a frog, a rabbit, a boar, a wolf, a fox, and even the big bear. They always squeezed in somehow and made room for the next arrival.
Let the exhibition #word#language#book be a symbolic glove, where we all live together in peace.
