Days of the Croatian Language is an annual week-long cultural event first established by Matica hrvatska

Matica hrvatska

Matica hrvatska is one of the oldest Croatian cultural institutions, dating back to 1842. The name is somewhat idiosyncratic, best translated as "The Croatian Centre" . It is the largest publisher of Croatian language books...

 which celebrates the Croatian language

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

. It is held from March 11 to March 17.

It was first held upon Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n independence in 1991. In 1997 the Croatian Parliament declared that this week would officially commemorate the Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language

Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language

The Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Literary Language was a document brought by Croat scholars. The declaration was published on March 13, 1967 in the Telegram, Yugoslav newspapers for social and cultural issues, nr. 359, 17 March 1967...

 published exactly thirty years earlier.

The week is marked by cultural and literary events across Croatia, as well as among the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina form one of the three constitutive nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.There is no precise data regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina's population since the last war. Ethnic cleansing within Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s saw the vast majority of Croats move and take...

.