Etxepare will support Basque initiative “Korrika”

Once again, the Etxepare Basque Institute has signed an agreement with AEK Basque language teaching cooperative to support the 21st Korrika initiative worldwide. This is the biggest cultural event in support of a language, where thousands of people take part in a relay race that passes the “Basque language baton” from one hand to another without interruption for ten days. 

Once again, the Etxepare Basque Institute has signed an agreement with AEK Basque language teaching cooperative to support the 21st Korrika initiative worldwide. This is the biggest cultural event in support of a language, where thousands of people take part in a relay race that passes the “Basque language baton” from one hand to another without interruption for ten days. 

The Korrika is usually celebrated in April, and crosses several towns in the Basque Country. Nevertheless, the Basque global diaspora also celebrates this event by organising small Korrikas all around the world. The Etxepare Basque Institute, through its worldwide network of Basque readers in Universities (Basque language and culture teachers) and Euskal Etxeak or Basque Centres set in many cities, will once again foster the organisation of these small Korrikas and other cultural activities, previous to the big celebration. The aim is to get warmed up before the real event and to gain conscience about the importance of preservation of languages. 

In addition, the Institute has set a contest in motion with its two networks: The readerships and the Basque Centres. It will be a video contest in which the participants have to raise awareness with the Korrika and explain why Basque language is important to them. Among all the contestants from readerships and Basque Centres, one of each with more votes will be the winners. The award is a stay at a Basque Barnetegi (boarding school) in summer to learn Basque. 

From the 21st of March on, the videos received for the contest will be published in AEK’s Youtube channel, so people can vote for their favourite by pressing the “like” button. Voting will be over on April 1st, and the two videos with the biggest number of likes (one among the students of the readerships, and another among the students of Basque Centres) will become winners. Their names will be announced on Etxepare Basque Institute’s web the next day, April 2nd.