International Tea Day 2023: Date, History, Significance And All You Need To Know

The goal of International Tea Day is to increase public knowledge of the beverage's health advantages. 

(Representational Image)

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New Delhi: For all tea lovers, the time has come to get ready as the day to celebrate the beloved beverage has arrived, for its International Tea Day today.  According to a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly, the day is marked every year on May 21. The day's goal is to increase public knowledge of the beverage's health advantages. 

According to the official UN website, International Tea Day "will promote and foster collective actions to implement activities in favour of the sustainable production and consumption of tea and raise awareness of its importance in preventing hunger and poverty."

International Tea Day 2023: December 15 Or May 21

New Delhi, hosted the first International Tea Day in 2005. The celebrations were eventually joined by other countries that produce tea, such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda, and Tanzania. Ten years later, in 2015, the Indian government submitted a proposal to the FAO Intergovernmental Group on Tea, which leads worldwide activities to advance the world tea industry and played a key role in the establishment of International Tea Day which sought to expand the scope of the celebration of the event.

However, there is a great deal of uncertainty around the precise date of International Tea Day. It's crucial to note that even though the United Nations General Assembly recognised December 15 as International Tea Day, May 21 had already been set aside for this day.

On December 15, the United Nations observednInternational Tea Day to recognise the importance of tea in global culture and commerce while stressing its impact on livelihoods and sustainability. This event aimed to promote fair trade and ecological tea production while also bringing attention to the importance of tea, whereas, the May 21st International Tea Day has its roots in the tea-producing nations of the World Tea Conference, which proposed the date to commemorate the signing of the First International Tea Agreement in 2005, and this observance focuses on promoting tea production, consumption, and cultural aspects.

International Tea Day 2023: History

According to the United Nations, there is proof that tea was drunk in China more than 5,000 years ago. As per legend, the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung had his first taste of the drink while he and his men were busy finding cover under a tree. Some wind-blown tea leaves accidentally fell into a pot of boiling water, where they infused it and produced today's most popular beverage.

After being discovered in China in 2737 BC, tea spread throughout Asia where it first appeared in religious rites as a symbol before becoming a beverage and a remedy. In order to compete with China's monopoly on the production of tea, the British first brought the crop to India for commercial purposes in 1824. Since then, it has been extensively grown throughout Darjeeling, Nilgiri, and Assam, with 900,000 tonnes of tea reportedly produced in the nation.

International Tea Day 2023: Significance

The purpose of the day is to encourage the sustainable production, use, and manufacture of tea. It offers a platform for policymakers at the global, regional, and national levels to highlight the contribution of the tea industry to the fight against hunger, the eradication of extreme poverty, and the preservation of the environment and livelihoods.