Tell a Fairy Tale Day

Tell a Fairy Tale Day is an annual American holiday dedicated to fairy tales. This genre of literature allows you to get away from reality and escape from injustice by observing the lives and adventures of the characters that the authors have invented in their works. Fairy tales are meant to bring goodness and understanding, where characters learn from their mistakes, bad characters become good or get punished. The holiday is on February 26.

History

There is no information about the creation of Tell a Fairy Tale Day. This holiday was probably proposed by a person or group of people who really loved fairy tales and wanted to make them even more popular. This genre of literature is considered children’s literature. Such fictional, interesting stories help introduce children to reading and instill a love of literature at a young age. Fairy tales are also useful for adults: they perfectly allow for relaxation, distraction from problems, and nostalgia for the bygone era of childhood.

It is believed that the first fairy tales appeared as early as the 600s B.C. The main credit for their creation belongs to the ancient Greek storyteller-slave Aesop. He wrote hundreds of short and cautionary stories based on fictional characters. They were primarily intended for children.

As time went on, fairy tales became more and more popular. Every culture in the world has stories for children. They are often inspired by local cultural traditions and mythology. Today, we can find and read countless fairy tales: about dragons and castles, fairies, wizards, dwarves, and other characters. Often the heroes of fairy tales are anthropomorphized animals. Tales of Winnie the Pooh are a prime example!

Interesting facts

• The most popular storytellers known throughout the world are Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, Rudyard Kipling, and Astrid Lindgren.
• Stories of bread or baked dough are available in dozens of countries. For example, in Germany, children are told the tale of the “escaped pie,” and in the United States, Johnny Donut (the prototype of the “Gingerbread Man” from the cartoon Shrek) is popular.
• The Brothers Grimm did not invent fairy tales themselves, but collected folk tales from all over the world, which they then refined a little.

How to celebrate

On Tell a Fairy Tale Day, read fairy tales to your children or immerse yourself in them to relieve unnecessary stress and distract from the real world. Search the Internet for new fairy tales, perhaps discovering something in this literary genre you have missed!

On this day, we suggest that you fantasize and write a little fairy tale yourself. Test your authoring skills!

Spread the word on social media. Ask other users what their favorite fairy tale is.

When is Tell a Fairy Tale Day in 2025?

Tell a Fairy Tale Day is observed on February 26 each year.

Observations