This spirit drives the Christian participation during National Book Fair (Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, in Bangla), the annual event launched in 2023 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and held at the Bangla Academy in Dhaka, last month.
The president hoped that the 'Amar Ekushey Book Fair' will uphold the Bangla language, culture, history and its tradition by keeping the spirit of the great language movement alive.
At this year's event, there are more than 800 exhibitors. The Bangladesh Bible Society (BBS), which has a booth at number 789 in the fair complex, is one of them.
Promoting Christian books from the stand of a fair is giving witness to the gospel and fostering interaction with the Muslim country.
A lot of people take the chance to buy the Bible and learn more about Jesus' life. There were some authors from the Bangladesh Christian Writers Forum there.
Shuvro Falia, the Bangladesh Bible Society's marketing manager, said that "many people are interested in reading the books and are interested in purchasing the books." The book fair provides an opportunity to “spread the word of God and faith among people, many of them non-Christians, who come to us and buy copies of the Bible.”
"We bear testimony to Jesus Christ with our presence" and we recall British missionary William Carey, who was the first to translate the Bible into the local tongue," Falia continued.
The Bangladesh Christian Writers Forum (BCWF) is also present this year for the first time, with the intention of "sharing our writing with others," as President Khokon Corraya recalls.
He continues by stating that because of their participation at the fair, readers who may not have otherwise discovered and been familiar with such a specific genre have been inspired to buy thousands of Christian books and periodicals.
Hassan Mahmud, who came to the book fair, said that he bought a copy to "learn more about Christianity" and its holy books, even though he is a Muslim.
The traditional Amar Ekushey Book Fair started informally in 1972 on the Bangla Academy premises and then in 1978 the academy officially took the responsibility of arranging the fair every year.
In 1984, it was named 'Amar Ekushey Book Fair'. Notably, in the 1990s, another national book fair called Dhaka International Book Fair was initiated. - Nikhil Gomes
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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