When is World Storytelling Day?
World Storytelling Day 2027 is on Saturday
Saturday, March 20, 2027
March 20 every year, around the March equinox. That's in 154 days.
until World Storytelling Day begins, in your time zone
World Storytelling Day celebrates oral storytelling, the old art of telling stories aloud rather than reading them from a page. The aim is for as many people as possible, in as many places and languages as possible, to tell and listen to stories on the same day.
About World Storytelling Day
World Storytelling Day is a grassroots celebration of spoken stories: folk tales, myths, family histories and new tales told live by a teller to an audience. Storytellers, libraries, schools, museums and community groups hold performances and story circles, and many events around the world share a common theme chosen each year by storytellers themselves through an online group.
Accounts of the day's start differ slightly, but they agree that it began in Sweden. A 2016 post on the Library of Congress folklife blog traces it to a Swedish day called Alla berättares dag, or All Storytellers' Day, held around 1991 or 1992. Sagobygden, a storytelling center and museum in Ljungby, Sweden, credits storyteller Ulf Ärnström with proposing a World Storytelling Day at a storytelling festival in 2001. It spread to the other Scandinavian countries in 2002, then to Canada and France, and Sagobygden says that by 2005 storytellers in 25 countries were taking part.
The date was tied to the March equinox, when day and night are roughly equal in length, and March 20 became the usual date. That makes it the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Sagobygden notes that groups are free to pick another date, since the point is simply to keep stories being told. The theme for 2025 was Deep Water, following Building Bridges in 2024. World Storytelling Day has no official UN or government status; it is run by storytellers and the groups that host them.
Sources: Library of Congress, Folklife Today: World Storytelling Day: Stories of Strong Women (2016), Sagobygden (Ljungby, Sweden): World Storytelling Day. How we check dates.
How to mark World Storytelling Day
- Tell a family story to your children or grandchildren without a book, the way it was told to you.
- Look for a storytelling session at your public library, museum or local storytelling guild.
- Learn one short folk tale from your own culture well enough to tell it from memory.
- Host a story circle with friends where each person tells a true story built around this year's theme.
- Record an older relative telling a story from their life so it can be passed on.
World Storytelling Day dates
| Year | Date |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Thursday, March 20, 2025 |
| 2026 | Friday, March 20, 2026 |
| 2027 | Saturday, March 20, 2027 |
| 2028 | Monday, March 20, 2028 |
| 2029 | Tuesday, March 20, 2029 |
| 2030 | Wednesday, March 20, 2030 |
| 2031 | Thursday, March 20, 2031 |
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Frequently asked questions
When is World Storytelling Day 2027?
World Storytelling Day 2027 is on Saturday, March 20, 2027. It falls on March 20 every year, around the March equinox. In 2028, it is on Monday, March 20, 2028.
Where did World Storytelling Day start?
It started in Sweden. The Library of Congress folklife blog traces it to a Swedish All Storytellers' Day around 1991 or 1992, while the Swedish storytelling center Sagobygden dates the World Storytelling Day name to 2001.
Why is World Storytelling Day in March?
Organizers linked it to the March equinox, when day and night are about equal, and March 20 became the customary date.
Is World Storytelling Day a public holiday?
No. World Storytelling Day is an observance, not a public holiday, so schools, banks, government offices and most businesses keep their normal hours.