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Calling all stationery lovers, it’s time to fill your pencil cases, sharpen those pencils, invest in a new notebook, and get ready to celebrate National Stationery Week in style this April.

National Stationery Week is the annual campaign designed to celebrate all things stationery-related and encourage people from across the globe to spend time practicing their handwriting and put pen to paper.

National Stationery Week is the ideal time to celebrate your go-to pieces of stationery, and celebrate your passion for all things stationery, from coloring pencils and ballpoint pens to notebooks and planners.

Learn about National Stationery Week

National Stationery Week focuses on celebrating all things stationery-related; the celebration lasts for one week each year and is always popular with stationery lovers from across the globe. The concept of this week is to bring stationery lovers together, allowing the stationery addicted community to celebrate the week and their love of paper and pens.

National Stationery Week isn’t just about stationery basics like pens and paper; it’s about far more than that. Whether you’re someone that loves stamping, for instance or are passionate about watercolor pencils, National Stationery Week is a celebration that you will surely want to get involved in and be an active part of.

Research commissioned by National Stationery Week as part of a YouGov study found some interesting information about stationery lovers. For instance, 92% of adults believe that making the time to write by hand is essential, and is something that should be taken seriously and celebrated wherever possible. While 97% of adults believe that it is important that children are taught how to write properly, rather than just typing on computers constantly.

What’s great about National Stationery Week is the fact that it celebrates the written word – and all things stationery-related. It’s not just writing that is celebrated, but also the products that make writing possible.

History of National Stationery Week

The aim of National Stationery Week has always been to get people from across the globe talking about the importance of the written word, as well as encouraging the community to actually focus on writing. Instead of sending emails and texting constantly – this week helps to highlight the need to continue to write letters.

National Stationery Week focuses on championing the process of writing by hand, and encouraging other people from across the globe to put their laptops and tablets down, and instead write with pens and paper instead of via a keyboard. Encouraging others to share details of their favorite stationery items, from their go-to notepad brands to their must-have pens, pencils, sharpeners, and whatever else fills their pencil cases. What a lot of stationery enthusiasts love about National Stationery Week is the fact it offers them the opportunity to learn about all of the items that others store in their pencil cases and see as must-have items.

In a world where people choose to type on a keyboard rather than write by hand, there’s a real concern that the art of the written word will be lost. Which is what makes National Stationery Week such an important celebration, highlighting the vitality of handwriting, as a pose to typing everything on a computer.

For all we know, handwriting may become a trade as dead as lamp-lighting, town crying or door-to-door sales, with people, eventually using only typing to note things down, which of course would be a seriously sad loss. It’s for this reason – among others – that any day, week or month that celebrates the sanctity of the written word is so crucial.

How to celebrate National Stationery Week

Stationery enthusiasts from across the globe tend to celebrate National Stationery Week by spreading the word about what the week is all about and how it should be celebrated. During last year’s week of celebration, over 20,000 social media users on Twitter and Facebook got involved in the celebrations, using a number of related hashtags.

This year, a number of predetermined hashtags have been set out with each associated with a different day during the week. These include:

Monday – #makeanotemonday
Tuesday – #pencilday
Wednesday – #worldstationeryday
Thursday – #letsgetcreative
Friday – #Fountainpenfriday
Saturday – #stationeryshopsaturday
Sunday – #sendaletterday

Usually, when National Stationery Week is celebrated it receives a lot of free press from schools, universities, and businesses from across the globe who all get involved in the celebrations by sharing social media posts and working on projects linked to the celebrations.

A number of stationery lovers choose to celebrate National Stationery Week by focusing on a selection of quirky and unique facts. These include the fact that:

By choosing to recycle a tone of paper you will save 17 trees, 26,000 liters of water, and 700 gallons of oil. What this fact shows is that by opting to invest in recycled paper when it comes to notebooks and jotters, stationery lovers can help the environment.

Another fun fact is that paper was invented in China in the year 100 BC, while the first commercial paper-making process was started in 105 AD during the Han Dynasty. It was put in place to replace papyrus and parchment which had been used for thousands of years.

Also, a cool fact is that the word ‘pen’ comes from the term ‘penna’, a latin word meaning ‘feather’, which of course, is how people used to write – using a feather and ink. Did you know that penne pasta is called penne because it resembles the tip of a quill?

Did you know that the very first pencils were just sticks of graphite wrapped and bound in a string? While bread, at one point in history, was used as a makeshift eraser.

The very first inks were created over 5000 years ago and used ingredients including soot and gelatine from donkey skin. Don’t worry, today ink is completely cruelty-free and is simply made from dyes.

Did you know that chimpanzees in the wild have been observed sharpening sticks on rocks and using them to etch markings onto rocks? Many stationery lovers believe that chimpanzees also have a passion for writing as many people do.

This National Stationery Week get together with other stationery lovers, join the stationery community and celebrate in style.

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