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

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

creator

L. L. Zamenhof L. L. Zamenhof (15 December 185914 April 1917) was the creator of Esperanto, the most widely used constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Zamenhof published Esperanto in 1887, although his initial ideas date back as ...

. 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 mores ha ...

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

Esperantist An Esperantist () 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 Esperanto and uses it for ...

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 Proto-Esperanto () is the modern term for any of the stages in the evolution of L. L. Zamenhof's Esperanto, language project, prior to the publication of in 1887. The Neo-Jewish language of ca. 1879 The precursors to the Esperanto alphabet c ...

'', 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''. 15 December 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, 15 December 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 List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

, Poland, opened a new Zamenhof Center, and a

symposium In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

honoring Zamenhof was held in New York City, featuring talks by Arika Okrent and Humphrey Tonkin among other professors. Also on this date, the search engine

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

, 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 art, abstract lines or shapes, generally w ...

) emblazoned with the

Esperanto flag Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for international commun ...

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 is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

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