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August 1 is celebrated as the day of the Azerbaijani alphabet and the Azerbaijani language.

The people of Azerbaijan with an ancient and rich culture have made a number of valuable contributions to the world civilization. Their first examples, the images of Gobustan and Gamigaya, as well as epigraphic monuments, once again prove that our people used different types of writing and alphabets when creating these valuable works. Due to the spread of Islam, the Arabic alphabet has been used in our country for centuries. From the second half of the 19th century, a number of progressive enlightened intellectuals of Azerbaijan, led by M. F. Akhundzade, tried to carry out the alphabet reform, but they faced a number of obstacles and did not succeed in implementing the alphabet reform.

The historical conditions that arose after gaining our independence opened new perspectives for our people to join the common writing system of the nations of the world and made it necessary to restore the Azerbaijani alphabet with Latin script. Since that time, the phase of transition to our national alphabet with Latin script has gradually started in the independent Republic of Azerbaijan. Afad Gurbanov was the first scientist who justified the need to switch to a new independent alphabet with scientific facts. On August 1, 1990, on his initiative, the Azerbaijan Alphabet Commission was established, the new alphabet compiled by the commission was approved in 1992 and started to be applied. As a result, in 1992, the Law on the introduction of the Latin alphabet of Azerbaijan was adopted. In 2001, the transition to the Latin alphabet of Azerbaijan was completed.

Like the Azerbaijani alphabet, the comprehensive development of the language, its acquisition of the status of an official state language, and its opening to world diplomacy in the system of international relations are connected with the name of the great leader Heydar Aliyev. In the first Constitution of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan, adopted on November 12, 1995, the people demonstrated their position through a referendum and declared that they were unanimously in favor of calling the state language of the country Azerbaijani.

Taking into account that the introduction of the Latin alphabet is an important event in the political life of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the history of our written culture, Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, signed a decree on August 9, 2001. With this decree, August 1 was declared the Day of the Azerbaijani Alphabet and the Azerbaijani Language in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On the occasion of the Day of Azerbaijani Literature and the Azerbaijani Language, the staff of the National Library prepared a virtual exhibition called "August 1 - Day of the Azerbaijani Alphabet and the Azerbaijani Language".

Opinions, decrees and decrees, books of prominent people of Azerbaijan are displayed in the virtual exhibition.

Those who want to learn more about the virtual exhibition can use the link http://anl.az/el/vsb/Ana_dili_gunu/index.htm.