14
Apr
Dedaena Day
14 April is Mother Language Day in the Republic of Georgia. Regardless of their first language, all citizens of the country celebrate the day when the nation and its government have united against the Soviet Russian attempt to deprive the state status of Georgian – one of the oldest living languages, still in use almost unchanged since ancient times.
In 1990, 14 April was officially established as Mother Language Day in Georgia, and this date has been celebrated annually ever since – the first example of the possibility to defeat the Kremlin.
To commemorate the events of 1978, in 1983, the Monument of Dedaena – also known as the Bell of Knowledge – was put up in Dedaena Park on the right bank of the Kura (Mtkvari) River, near the Dry Bridge. The sculptor Elguja Amashukeli (1928-2002) and architect Nodar Mgaloblishvili created a statue of a young boy who is eager to reach the heights of knowledge and thus, tries to ring the bell (equally representing a school bell and church bell) by jumping up and stretching his hands towards the sky.
In 2015 the Georgian alphabet – one of the 14 unique alphabets in the world – has been granted the national status of cultural heritage.
