Today is the Día das Letras Galegas. But we want to tell you a little bit more about this Galician festivity and its origin.

It was in 1963 when the Royal Galician Academy created this celebration. What was its purpose? To pay tribute to writers who used the Galician language.

It will be 60 years this year, 2023, since that first festival, which paid tribute to Rosalía de Castro.

Why 17 May?

Because it was on 17 May when, in 1863, the first copy of the work Cantares Gallegos, by the artist Rosalía de Castro, was published in the city of Vigo.

And it was exactly 100 years later when the Royal Galician Academy dedicated its first tribute to her.

To whom is this 2023 dedicated?

Francisco Fernández del Riego will be this year’s honoree. According to the RAG, “Francisco Fernández del Riego was a tireless cultural fighter who became a true institution in the country, respected by all and open to the various manifestations of Galicianism”.

Francisco, in addition to founding Editorial Galaxia, was president of the Royal Galician Academy between 1997 and 2001.

Requirements

For a Galician artist to be honoured on May 17th by the Galician Royal Academy there are some requirements to be met.

The first of them, as we mentioned at the beginning, is that they are a writer of Galician literary novels or for their defence of the language.

Secondly, at least 10 years must have passed since his or her death.

Since the first year, this celebration has been dedicated to a single artist, breaking this rule in 1998, when three poets were jointly honoured (Martin Códax, Xohán de Cangas and Mendinho).

Did you know that in these 60 years, 5 women have been honoured? Rosalía de Castro (1963) Francisca Herrera Garrido (1987), María Mariño (2007) María Victoria Moreno (2018) and Xela Arias (2021).

This day has also been a regional holiday in Galicia since 1991.