As it was World Book Day in the UK yesterday (March 7), we decided to look back at how we celebrated the occasion in years prior.

The event is the local version of the original, global World Book Day organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing, and copyright, and widely observed on April 23. Organisers in our country moved the observance to avoid clashes with Easter school holidays and with Saint George's Day.

The day is often associated with dressing up as one's favourite literary character to celebrate the genre and its importance in education.

Celebrated annually on the first Thursday of March in the UK, it aims to encourage a love for books and promote the importance of reading, transcending age, gender, and cultural boundaries.

In schools across the UK, children and educators come together to celebrate characters, stories, and the incredible worlds that books open up.

Through dressing up as their favourite literary characters, students have fun and immerse themselves in the magic of storytelling.

This interactive and imaginative approach helps foster a positive relationship with books, making reading a pleasurable activity rather than a chore.

World Book Day plays a crucial role in promoting literacy and education.

By providing children with book tokens that can be exchanged for specially published World Book Day books, the event ensures that every child has access to literature, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

For adults, World Book Day can serve as a reminder of the immense pleasure and benefits of reading.

In a world dominated by technology and screens, the simple act of picking up a book allows people to escape into different realms, broaden their perspectives, and enhance their knowledge, and encourages adults to take a break from their busy lives and rediscover the joy of getting lost in the pages of a good book.

World Book Day also highlights the importance of supporting authors, publishers, and bookstores.

By celebrating and purchasing books - and indeed any physical media rather than streaming, people contribute to the thriving literary ecosystem, ensuring that stories continue to be written, published, and shared with the world, and paid for fairly.