Zamenhof Day ( eo, Zamenhofa Tago,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin scree ...

: ), also called Esperanto Book Day, is celebrated on 15 December, the birthday of

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international commun ...

creator

L. L. Zamenhof L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 185914 April 1917) was an ophthalmologist who lived for most of his life in Warsaw. He is best known as the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed international auxiliary language. Zamenhof first dev ...

. It is the most widely celebrated day in

Esperanto culture Esperanto culture refers to the shared cultural experience of the Esperantujo, or Esperanto-speaking community. Despite being a constructed language, Esperanto has a history dating back to the late 19th century, and shared socio-cultural norms hav ...

.Pri la 145-a Zamenhofa tago
at China Radio International On this day,

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperan ...

s hold information sessions and cultural gatherings to promote literature in Esperanto. The history of celebrating Esperanto on Zamenhof's birthday can be traced back to 17 December 1878, when at a birthday party for his 19th birthday he presented to his friends his '' Lingwe uniwersala'', the first version of his international language. By 1887, this language had evolved into what is now recognized as Esperanto when he published the ''

Unua Libro ''Dr. Esperanto's International Language'' (russian: Международный язык), commonly referred to as ' (''First Book''), is an 1887 book by Polish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof, in which he first introduced and described the co ...

''. December 15th previously used to be also known as Esperanto Day, but that is now celebrated on 26 July, the day ''Unua Libro'' was published. As of 1927 onwards, December 15th is celebrated within the Esperanto movement as ''Esperanto Book Day'' as it is customary to purchase a new book on Esperanto on that occasion.

Zamenhof's 150th birth anniversary

15 December 2009 marked 150 years since Zamenhof's birth, and there were several events to celebrate. On this date, the authorities in his home town of

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

, Poland, opened a new Zamenhof Center, and a

symposium In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...

honoring Zamenhof was held in New York City, featuring talks by

Arika Okrent Arika Okrent is an American linguist, known particularly for her 2009 book ''In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language'', a result of her five ...

and

Humphrey Tonkin Humphrey R. Tonkin (born 2 December 1939) is professor of English, and served as the 4th president of the University of Hartford. He is also a dedicated Esperantist. Biography Born in Truro, UK, Tonkin is a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S ...

among other professors. Also on this date, the search engine

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. I ...

, in 33 national language versions (but not the international English one), bore a special version of their logo (a

Doodle A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines or shapes, generally without ever lift ...

) emblazoned with the

Esperanto flag Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communic ...

in honor of the occasion, which generated, between the 30 biggest Wikipedia languages, 1,750,000 page views on the articles "

References

Birth certificate of Ludwik Zamenhof
, dated 15 December 1859, Archives of Poland, Post-Partition Era (19th century). It corresponds to 3 December in the then-official

Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandria. ...

of Russia. Boulton, Marjorie. ''Zamenhof, Aǔtoro de Esperanto''. La Laguna : J. Régulo, 1962. Discussion on the exact date of that birthday party may be found a
Message Board
at Yahoo Groups Japan Zamenhof Symposium
/ref> Zamenhof Honored by Google
Huliq.com. Retrieved 15 December 2009. Google festas la Zamenhof-Tagon, Libera Folio
. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
, ''La Ondo de Esperanto'', 2010, n-ro 2 (184), p.8.

External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Zamenhofa Tago Language observances December observances Esperanto culture

Zamenhof's 150th birth anniversary

See also

References

External links