News
11 April: what is celebrated today
Some days ask us to turn down the volume to listen better. 11 April proposes two complementary gestures: pausing in the face of a disease that transforms the daily lives of millions of people and, at the same time, celebrating those cultural refuges where time seems to turn at another speed. Between awareness and pleasure, care and passion, the date reminds us that life is also sustained by what we share.
World Parkinson’s Day
Every 11 April, World Parkinson’s Day is commemorated, a date promoted in 1997 by European patient organisations and supported by the World Health Organization. It is no coincidence: it coincides with the birth of James Parkinson, the doctor who in 1817 first described the so-called “shaking palsy”. Since then, the proper name became a diagnosis, and the diagnosis a collective challenge.
Parkinson’s is a progressive, chronic neurodegenerative disease that alters the control of movement and also affects the emotional sphere. Its origin is linked to the loss of dopamine-producing neurons, and its symptoms progress gradually: tremors, rigidity, balance problems. Today it is estimated that millions of people live with it around the world, often in silence, also struggling against stigma.
The red tulip, the international symbol of this day, aptly sums up the metaphor: with care, support and treatment, fragility can be sustained for longer. Research, physical and expressive therapies, and public visibility have changed the way the disease is viewed. Figures such as Michael J. Fox have helped to break the taboo, reminding us that Parkinson’s does not cancel the voice or dignity of the person who suffers from it.
World Record Store Day
On the same day, the calendar sets aside space for a celebration with another rhythm: World Record Store Day, known as Record Store Day. It is celebrated on the second Saturday in April and was born in 2007 as an invitation to return to those premises where music is touched, smelled and talked about before it is heard.
In a world dominated by digital platforms and endless playlists, record shops endure as small temples of slow listening. Vinyl does not compete on immediacy: it offers an experience. Sleeves that tell stories, limited editions, recommendations passed from hand to hand. That apparently anachronistic ritual continues to draw collectors and the curious.
This day is not just nostalgia. It is a way of supporting independent businesses and of asserting music as a social gathering. Queueing outside a record shop, discovering an unexpected album or leaving with a classic under one’s arm is also a way of saying that culture needs physical spaces to remain alive.