International Mother Language Day is celebrated globally each year on 21 February.

2022 will be the fifth consecutive year that Manchester has celebrated the event. In 2019 and 2020 over 5,000 people engaged with activity across the city centre and neighbourhoods. In 2021 we held 18 events digitally to ensure we still honoured the significance of languages to Manchester, even while we had to stay at home.

The special day is a treasured celebration of the nearly 200 languages spoken in Manchester and of the cultural diversity that is one of the city’s strengths.

The events involve libraries, cultural venues, community groups, universities, schools, poets and writers. For 2022 we are increasing the cultural content of the programme and making international links with other UNESCO Creative Cities, particularly through online platforms.

Events happening between 17th February and 8th March will be celebrating International Mother Language Day in Manchester. Help us give the warmest welcome to the brand new Manchester City Poets to their roles, learn to sing in multiple languages with Z-Arts, Cook with Words at Zouk on Oxford Road and celebrate words and language in many forms with Manchester Libraries, Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University and Creative Manchester and more!

There’s a series of events from a range of partners across the city and beyond, scroll below to find out everything that’s happening, and you can click each event to find out more about it and book your place. If you’d like to print a copy of the full programme, head to our What’s On to download a PDF.

Join in the conversation with us online @MCRCityofLit, using the hashtag #MCRIMLD22 and #MotherLanguageDay, we’d love to see your photos!