This year’s celebrations, organized jointly by the High Commission of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Education, consisted of an islandwide competition in which school students submitted paintings, essays and poems. Winners received their prizes from Prime Minister
Rajapaksa at this event.

This year’s UNESCO celebrations are taking place under the overall theme “Languages without Borders” while the celebrations in Sri Lanka focused on “Language for Unity.” International Mother Language Day has been observed since 2000 and works to promote
linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. According to the United Nations, “At least 43% of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken in the world are endangered.” And it estimates that a language disappears every two weeks, “taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage.” Thus, this initiative seeks to create greater awareness of language-related concerns and promote language diversity and multilingualism.