Esperanto Culture - Cultural Community

Cultural Community

There are cultural commonalities between Esperanto speakers, which is a distinctive feature of a cultural community. Esperanto was created to foster universal understanding, solidarity and peace. A large proportion of the Esperanto movement continue to hold such goals, and most are at least sympathetic to them. Additionally, many Esperantists use the language as a window to the larger world, to meet people from other countries on an equal footing, and for travel. The Esperanto-community has a certain set of shared background knowledge.

To some extent there are also shared traditions, like the Zamenhof Day, and shared behaviour patterns, like avoiding the usage of one's national language at Esperanto meetings unless there are good reasons for its use (Esperanto culture has a special word, krokodili ("to crocodile"), to describe this avoided behaviour). On the other hand, it has been said that some aspects of shared traditions normally found in cultural communities, like clothing and cooking, aren't found in the Esperanto community. Not everyone would agree. Like other people, Esperanto speakers who are interested in cookery exchange and share recipes, both their own creations and their national and regional dishes. Various collections of such recipes have been published in book form in Esperanto, e.g. Internacie kuiri (“Cooking Internationally”) by Maria Becker-Meisberger, published by FEL (Flemish Esperanto League), Antwerp 1989, ISBN 90-71205-34-7, Manĝoj el sanigaj plantoj (“Healthy Vegetable Dishes”) by Zlata Nanić, published by BIO-ZRNO, Zagreb 2002, ISBN 953-97664-5-1. Sometimes at Esperanto gatherings, such original dishes as those devised by Zlatka Nanić can be sampled. Some Esperanto periodicals, such as MONATO include cookery items from time to time. As regards clothing, at every Universala Kongreso, held every year in a different country, many of those attending can been seen wearing their national or regional costumes.

On December 15 (L. L. Zamenhof's birthday), Esperanto speakers around the world celebrate Zamenhof Day, sometimes relabelled Esperanto Book Day.

The poem La Espero is generally considered to be the Esperanto anthem. It speaks of the achievement of world peace, "sacred harmony" and "eternal blessing" on the basis of a neutral language. Nonetheless Esperanto speakers may or may not agree whether the stated benefits could in fact be achieved in this way. At the first Esperanto congress, in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1905, a declaration was made which defined an "Esperantist" merely as one who knows and uses the language "regardless of what kind of aims he uses it for", and which also specifically declared any ideal beyond the spread of the language itself to be a private matter for the individual speaker.