On September 1–2 the Library took part in the celebration of the 25th Day of Belarusian Written Language dedicated to the Year of the Native Land in the city of Ivanovo, Brest region.
The Belarusians also celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first "Primer". That is why the theme of the participation of the National Library of Belarus in celebrating of the Day of Belarusian Written Language – 2018 is the Belarusian “Primer”.
The National Library presented a lot of interesting and exciting projects.
On September 1–2 the next areas were organized:
The exhibition “Belarusian Primer: the Generational Bridge”, dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the world’s first book entitled "Bukvar" (“primer”) (Vievis, 1618) and the Year of the Native Land. It included about 30 ABC-books and publications for elementary education in reading and writing: books of the 16–18th centuries, editions of the first half of the 20th century and of the second half of the 20th century in Belarusian.
Books for elementary reading and writing of the 16–18th centuries were presented with facsimile "Psalter" by Francysk Skaryna (Prague, 1517), "The Little Travel Book" (Vilnius, 1522) and the most characteristic educational edition of the 18th century, "The Primer of the Slavonic Language" (Vilnius, 1767), created by the National Library of Belarus, and the Spiridon Sobol's "Bukvar" (Kutein, 1631), prepared by the Belarusian Exarchate publishing house.
The central exhibit was represented by the true pride of the national book culture of this year, the facsimile of the "Primer" (Vievis, 1618). The visitors of the exhibition had an opportunity to get acquainted with the book, which laid the foundation for a new world tradition.
The beginning of the 20th century in the exposition was represented by the St. Petersburg and the Vilnius editions for elementary reading by K. Kaganets, Tetka, Y. Kolas, J. Stankevich, A. Smolich. One of the outstanding examples of the Belarusian ABC-book of the 1920s is "Bukvar" by Stepan Nekrashevich, the first edition of which was published in Berlin in 1922. It was represented also a similar edition published in 1925 by the State Publishing House of Belarus.
The electronic presentation "Belarusian Bukvar: Pages of History": it included digital images of famous ABC-books of the 16th – early 20th century, various in composition, graphics, artistic design, pedagogical methods of teaching reading and writing. There were the oldest patriotic books for teaching from Orthodox monasteries, stored in the National Library of Belarus, little-known publications for the Uniates and Old Believers, as well as Belarusian ABC-books of the early 20th century by K. Kaganets, Tetka (Aloiza Pashkevich), Yakub Kolas, Vaclav Lastovsky, Yanka Stankevich , Leonil Goretsky, Stepan Nekrashevich and others. The presentation made it possible to get acquainted with the traditions and development of Belarusian books for literacy.
The holograms exhibition of the ancient books. The treasures from the collections of the National Library of Belarus are “recorded” in holograms for the first time: valuable old printed publication "The Bible" by Francysk Skaryna (Prague, 1517–1519), "The Gospel" by Peter Mstislavets (Vilna, 1575), "New Testament and Psalms" (Kutein, 1652). All exposed holograms are "made in Belarus" and were created by the leading Belarusian enterprises “Magiya Sveta” (Magic of Light) and "Holography Industry". Today these enterprises are leaders in the production of holograms in the post-Soviet space, Belarus is one of the few countries where artistic holograms are being created.
The illustrative exhibition “Bukvar” was presented on 4 banners. Little guests could make puzzles, answer the quiz on the books and draw on special interactive equipment.
The key moment of the event was the presentation of the facsimile edition of "Bukvar" and its donation to the central regional library named after F. Panfyorov on September 2.
This international scientific publishing project on re-creation of a facsimile of the first "Primer" was completed on the eve of the Knowledge Day and the Day of Belarusian Written Language.
Its implementation became possible thanks to the partners of the project: the Middle Temple Library in London, the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in the United Kingdom Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, the International Association of Belarusians, the Belarusian State University, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Belorussian Bank for Development and Reconstruction Belinvestbank. The large-scale project is aimed to make the first "Primers" accessible to a wide audience and to show respect for the cultural heritage of our people. The facsimile edition will be interesting for scientists, employees of education, culture, all who appreciate the spiritual and book heritage of Belarus.
In the frameworks of the opening oа еру 25th Day of the Belarusian Written Language, the solemn transfer of the facsimile edition of the "Bukvar" by the Director of the National Library of Belarus Roman Motulsky to the Ivanovo district was held on the main stage.
The presentation of the joint project of the National Library of Belarus and the Viasiolka magazine, dedicated to the Belarusian ABC-book and its 400-year history was held on the "A Good Book for Children" stage.
The primer is not only the first book for teaching literacy, but also it can teach high universal human values. Thanks to the ABC-book the child acquires the ability to read, receives the first knowledge about his Fatherland, the people and his culture. That's why with the primer for several centuries and begins schooling. The authors of the project – the Deputy Director of the National Library of Belarus Alexander Susha and the editor-in-chief of the magazine Vladimir Lipsky – presented the most interesting and most unusual Belarusian alphabets that appear on the pages of the project through riddles and tasks, unexpected dialogues and original illustrations. During the year every month the new article of the joint project is published in the magazine, and young readers learn unknown pages of history and with which textbooks their distant ancestors studied.
The projects of the National Library of Belarus will be interesting to all guests of the Day of Belarusian Written Language.
