Joyously Celebrating "World Greek Language Day in the State of Rhode Island" as Proclaimed by Unesco

WHEREAS, On November 12, 2025, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a specialized United Nations agency that promotes international cooperation in education, science, culture and communication to build peace and foster sustainable development, unanimously declared February 9, 2026, to be “World Greek Language Day”; and

WHEREAS, On February 9, 2026, the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations hosted an event in celebration of World Greek Language Day in which the speakers highlighted the many important contributions of the Greek language to international dialogue and communication as well as its important contributions to global culture; and

WHEREAS, This important event was opened by the Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations, Ambassador Aglaia Balta, who spoke about “the deep and lasting imprint of the Greek Language”, and emphasized that “Language is not just a tool of communication but a bridge of understanding”; and

WHEREAS, UNESCO explained in its explanatory note when it declared February 9, 2026, to be “World Greek Language Day”, that “Language is a carrier of culture, an ark of values, concepts and identity, an instrument of expression and creation, a bridge of communication, understanding and consensus, and among the thousands of languages, Greek possesses an unbroken continuity of 40 centuries of oral tradition; and centuries of written tradition, making it the longest continuously spoken and written language in Europe”; and

WHEREAS, For the orthodox world, the Greek Language is a crucial and vital key to understanding, as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomew states, “what is perhaps the greatest intellectual paradise in the world, where lie the great and unique works that have left their mark on the course of world civilization, the Homeric epics, the Tragedies, the Platonic dialogues, the Aristotelian corpus, the New Testament, and the writings of the Greek Fathers”; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby joyously celebrates “World Greek Language Day” in the State of Rhode Island, as proclaimed by UNESCO; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Greek Ambassador to the United Nations, Aglaia Balta, Antonis Alexandridis, Ambassador of Greece to the United States and to His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.