Two thousand people from sixty countries are expected to attend the 94th World Esperanto Congress which opens in the north-eastern town of Białystok, Saturday.
Bialystok was the birthplace of Ludwik Zamenhof (right) the founder of Esperanto. Apart from the 300-strong Polish group, the largest delegations have come from France, Japan and Germany.
The programme of the week-long congress includes a wide range of academic and cultural projects, such as promotional events of some ninety Esperanto organizations, lectures, concerts and theatre performances in the Esperanto language.
To bring the language closer to the man-in-the-street, advertisements on city buses have been replaced with teach-yourself Esperanto posters providing vocabulary and basic phrases.
The congress coincides with the 150th anniversary of Zamenhof’s birth. Zamenhof died in 1917 and was buried in Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery. (mk/pg)
Click on the 'listen' icon to hear an audio report by Danusia Isler