International Folklore Day

It was the English archaeologist William John Thoms who used the word “folklore” for the first time, on August 22, 1846, in a writing published in The Athenaeum magazine in London. The concept derives from "folk" (town, people, race) and "lore" (knowledge, science), and is conjugated as "popular knowledge".

Although the word may appear written as "folcklore", "folklore" or "folklore", the Royal Spanish Academy chose to use "folklore". However, in the most generalized use the latter term is observed.

On August 22, 1960, almost a century after the term was created, the First International Congress of Folklore was held in Buenos Aires. Presided over by the prestigious Salta folklorologist Augusto Raúl Cortazar, the Congress brought together representatives from 30 countries who established August 22 as the Day of Folklore.