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21 February: what is celebrated today
21 February invites us to return to our origins: to the language with which we first learned to name the world, and to those who help us discover it through travel. Between linguistic memory and the art of guiding, this day links cultural diversity with the human experience of knowledge: speaking, listening, understanding, and storytelling. Today's anniversaries engage in a dialogue as two ways of safeguarding our collective heritage—one through words, the other through territory—and together remind us that identity is passed on both in the voices we use and in the stories we share.
Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna
Since 2000, every 21 February UNESCO invites us to look at an invisible map: the map of the languages that gave us our first key to the world. The mother tongue is not just a system of signs; it is the intimate territory where we discover affection, thought, and memory. In 2025, this anniversary marks twenty-five years, a milestone that seeks not only to celebrate but to highlight an urgent issue: more than half of the world's languages are at risk of disappearing in the coming decades.
The themes of recent years—from multilingual education to the role of technology in preserving indigenous languages—underline a single idea: without linguistic diversity, there is no cultural diversity, and without it, the future is diminished. The mother tongue is also a right. Bangladesh defended this right with blood in 1952, when demonstrators demanding Bengali as an official language were killed. Since then, this day pays tribute to those who fought to express themselves in their own voice.
Today, while a language dies every two weeks, the challenge is a collective one. UNESCO insists on strengthening multilingual education, promoting inclusive policies, and creating networks of protection to keep these voices alive. To speak of languages is to speak of identity, of history, and of a unique way of seeing the world. To celebrate is to listen to them before they fall silent forever.
Día Internacional del Guía de Turismo
21 February also recognises those who turn travel into experience: tour guides. Since 1990, this date honours professionals who not only guide visitors, but translate a country, a landscape, or a city through stories, details, and gestures that do not appear on maps. A guide does not just show monuments: they accompany, interpret, and bring to life the places we visit.
The Federación Mundial de Guías Profesionales, founded on 21 February in Vienna, brings together thousands of specialists from around the world. Their work is a blend of historical knowledge, communicative vocation, and intercultural sensitivity. They speak several languages, know local secrets, and possess an essential skill: helping travellers understand not only what they see, but what is felt by those who live there.
Cinema has made this figure the protagonist of comic, romantic, or adventure stories—from journeys through Athens to trips across the Gran Cañón—reflecting the narrative dimension of the profession. Because a good guide is, above all, a storyteller: someone who knows when to pause, which detail to highlight, which silence to respect. In a world where travel has become everyday, they keep the spirit of discovery alive.