What day is it?

The second Wednesday of August is the day when the art of writing is celebrated, namely World Calligraphy Day. So let’s take a pen and ink and make beautiful calligraphic letters! Calligraphy is art in written form. Today, it is used in many design concepts for advertising and promotion, including thanks to advanced modern technologies. However, calligraphy has also had a huge history that has influenced many cultures around the world. World Calligraphy Day – a great opportunity to remember this story and make calligraphy your passion. In 2022, World Calligraphy Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, August 10.

How did the idea of ​​celebrating World Calligraphy Day come about?

Term “calligraphy” comes from the Greek words “kalós” – beautiful and “grafí” – to write. Calligraphy is a rather successful combination of such disciplines as writing and visual arts. It allows the author to express himself through the artistic display of textual information.

The art of calligraphy begins with the first attempts at writing, more than 5 thousand years ago in Mesopotamia – on the territory of modern Iraq. From the ancient Sumerians, the traditions of elegant writing first spread to the Middle East, and later reached Egypt, China, and the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.

The art of calligraphy combines ancient traditions that have developed over thousands of years in different cultures. Today, there are many varieties of this written art: Western European, Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, etc. The formation of each of them has a huge impact on the development of calligraphy in general.

Development of calligraphy in Asia

In East Asia, the first mentions of calligraphy appear in China around 2000 BC. Here it develops as an important type of painting, and not just for the sake of beautiful writing. In the 11th century e. texts appear, written in beautiful calligraphic handwriting on special tablets made of bronze, animal bones are often used for writing. With the invention of paper in China, there was a rapid development of writing, and with it, calligraphy. The art of beautiful writing turns into a separate science to which whole works and research are devoted. At the same time, the formation of the main styles of Chinese writing takes place.

During the first centuries of our era, the art of calligraphy spread to neighboring countries such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc. This is how East Asian calligraphy is formed. Beautifully drawn hieroglyphs not only convey the meaning of the text, they reflect feelings and emotions in the same way as fine art and poetry.

Western European calligraphy

Formation in Europe calligraphy took place on the basis of Greco-Roman writing. The Etruscan alphabet was the first to appear, but the Etruscan script was incomprehensible even to the Romans. Initially, only capital letters were used in this alphabet. Subsequently, the Latin alphabet began to develop on the territory of modern Italy.

The rapid development of the art of calligraphy in the countries of Western Europe is due to the emergence of Christianity. After all, at that time, many copies of the Holy Scriptures and other texts of religious significance were created. The peak of the development of Western European calligraphy falls on the 8th-9th centuries AD. It was then that Irish and Scottish monks worked on the creation of so-called illuminated copies of the Gospels, which today are classified as works of art of the Middle Ages.

Special attitude to calligraphy on the part of Arab peoples

In countries that practice Islam, there has always been a kind of taboo on images of people and animals. As a result, all efforts and talents are directed to ornamental art. That is why there are so many decorative elements, arabesques and images of flowers in Arab culture. Of course, all this was reflected in calligraphic art.

Hundreds of lines of neatly drawn and beautifully decorated symbols formed the basis of hundreds of copies of the Koran. However, calligraphy was used not only for the creation of religious publications. It was widely used in tableware painting, fabric design, architectural elements, etc.

Development of calligraphy in Ukraine

Calligraphy in our country developed in parallel with the font. The stage of statutory cursive writing is considered the first period of development. Writing was carried out according to the rules of Byzantium and differed from Russian cursive, which developed under the influence of Eastern cultures. Since the second half of the 15th century, there has been a tendency to write words without division, the ends of letters were bent upwards, letters were written side by side, but the connection did not yet exist. All letters of Ukrainian cursive were small in size and of the same height, which significantly distinguished them from Russian cursive, where the characters differed in height, width and scale of writing. Ukrainian calligraphy is influenced by Poland and acquires Western European characteristics.

In the 18th century, a new character of writing letters appeared in writing, which began to spread in various schools: Kyiv, Lutsk, Ostroz. Chistopis, as calligraphy was called at that time, began to be taught in educational institutions, new handwritings were formed. This period is considered the most favorable for the development of Ukrainian cursive writing.

How is calligraphy made?

Just as drawing requires a huge selection of brushes, so the art of calligraphy requires special tools. After all, the form of the handwritten text will depend on them. There are pens with a broad, sharp, blunt end, as well as cutters and brushes.

• Using feather with a broad end, which arose back in the 4th millennium BC in the territory of Egypt, letters are created for various modern fonts.
• Pointed pen at first it was bird-like and in the 19th century they began to make metal tools. One of the varieties is a stylus – a sharply sharpened stick made of bone or bronze for writing on wax tablets. A steel pen with a sharp end allows you to perform contrasting calligraphic writing with pressure. At the beginning of the 19th century, the so-called double-embossed writing appeared. By the way, thanks to this type of writing, calligraphy turned into a virtuoso work of art. Also, the pointed pen gave an impetus to the creation of engraved calligraphy.
• A feather with a blunt end – a steel pen with special serifs. Similar tools were used to create Gothic fonts. In the language of calligraphers, such a pen is called “slashed radish”.
• Nowadays, brushes, felt-tip pens, ballpoint pens, etc. are used to create beautiful calligraphic writing.

How to celebrate World Calligraphy Day?

Every year on August 11, interesting quizzes and contests are created with calligraphic writing, conferences devoted to the theory and history of this art form are held. In Ukraine, this holiday is quite common, as calligraphy is part of the identity and history of our people. Apart from World Calligraphy Day in our country there is a national festival “Ruthenia”, dedicated to calligraphy and font, which falls on November. There is also the Saint Cyril’s Day, which is celebrated in May.

When will we celebrate World Calligraphy Day??