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The Philologist’s Day is celebrated annually on May 25. This day is dear to those who, in this or that way, deal with philology: graduates of philology departments, Russian language and literature teachers, librarians, translators and those who value their native language and literature. 

A philologist is a type of linguist, though the exact meaning of the term has changed over the years. Philology literally means "love of words," and the field often deals with literature more than other branches of linguistics do. In the modern academic world, the term is usually understood to mean the study of written texts, usually ancient ones.

It was much more common in the 19th century than it is today for a linguist to be called a philologist. Philology was the precursor to today's linguistics, which has changed to favor spoken data over written data. Comparative and historical linguistics, in which words from different languages are compared and contrasted to determine the current or historical relationships between languages, have their roots in the 19th century field.

In an earlier era, this person focused his or her study on language as it pertains to literature and culture. Individual words, their history, and the common history of words in different languages were also of interest. Literary interpretations and the study of language went hand in hand; in this respect, the modern field of comparative literature can also be seen as having its roots in philology.