2026 -- H 8374

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LC006188

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2026

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

JOYOUSLY CELEBRATING "WORLD GREEK LANGUAGE DAY IN THE STATE OF

RHODE ISLAND" AS PROCLAIMED BY UNESCO

     Introduced By: Representatives Paplauskas, Shekarchi, Blazejewski, Chippendale,
Santucci, Quattrocchi, Read, McNamara, Shallcross Smith, and Hopkins

     Date Introduced: March 31, 2026

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, On November 12, 2025, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a specialized United Nations agency that promotes

international cooperation in education, science, culture and communication to build peace and

foster sustainable development, unanimously declared February 9, 2026, to be “World Greek

Language Day”; and

     WHEREAS, On February 9, 2026, the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United

Nations hosted an event in celebration of World Greek Language Day in which the speakers

highlighted the many important contributions of the Greek language to international dialogue and

communication as well as its important contributions to global culture; and

     WHEREAS, This important event was opened by the Permanent Representative of

Greece to the United Nations, Ambassador Aglaia Balta, who spoke about “the deep and lasting

imprint of the Greek Language”, and emphasized that “Language is not just a tool of

communication but a bridge of understanding”; and

     WHEREAS, UNESCO explained in its explanatory note when it declared February 9,

2026, to be “World Greek Language Day”, that “Language is a carrier of culture, an ark of

values, concepts and identity, an instrument of expression and creation, a bridge of

communication, understanding and consensus, and among the thousands of languages, Greek

possesses an unbroken continuity of 40 centuries of oral tradition and 35 centuries of written

tradition, making it the longest continuously spoken and written language in Europe”; and

     WHEREAS, For the orthodox world, the Greek Language is a crucial and vital key to

understanding, as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomew states, “what is perhaps the greatest

intellectual paradise in the world, where lie the great and unique works that have left their mark

on the course of world civilization, the Homeric epics, the Tragedies, the Platonic dialogues, the

Aristotelian corpus, the New Testament, and the writings of the Greek Fathers”; now, therefore

be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

joyously celebrates “World Greek Language Day” in the State of Rhode Island, as proclaimed by

UNESCO; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Greek Ambassador to the United Nations,

Aglaia Balta, Antonis Alexandridis, Ambassador of Greece to the United States and to His

Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.

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