Cancellation of World Esperanto Congress

On April 11^th 2020, the UEA (Universala Esperanto Asocio or Universal Esperanto Association) with sadness announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 105 World Esperanto Congress, scheduled to take place in Montreal, Canada, has been cancelled. 

Congress will now be rescheduled to 2022, while the 106 congress still will take place next year in Belfast, UK. This is the 3^rd time in history that the Esperanto world congress is suspended. 

The first congress took place in 1905 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Then, it was celebrated every year. In 1914, the 10^th congress was scheduled to be held in Paris, France, starting on August 2^nd, but it was finally cancelled due to the beginning of the World War I on July 28^th of the same year. In that time, transportation was much slower and some delegates, who travelled earlier to be on time for the opening, were already in Paris when the war started and had a hard time trying to return home. Zamenhof himself had to travel back to Warsaw going through Sweden and Finland after being stopped in Germany. The following year, the 11^th world Esperanto congress was held in San Francisco, USA. Very few delegates attended (only 163 being the congress with the least number of participants). No other world events were organized until 1920 when the 12^th World Esperanto Congress was celebrated in the Netherlands.

The 32^nd Esperanto congress was planned to be held in 1940 in Marseille, France. The program was announced during the 31^st edition in Bern, Switzerland, but less than a month after the closing, World War II started and no congresses were celebrated until 1947 when Esperantists from all over the world met again in Bern.

Another cancellation happened in 1967. The 52^nd World Esperanto Congress was planned to be celebrated in Tel Aviv, Israel. Plans had to be changed due to the Six-Day War in June of the same year. After a quick vote, the UEA decided a last-minute organization of the event in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands. At least this time, the congress was not suspended.

The emergence of the Coronavirus will change the world as we know. Almost all our activities were affected and those related to Esperanto are not an exception. In Canada, we were counting the days for the opening of the World Esperanto Congress in Montreal. Our main concern now is the safety and good health of everybody and this pandemic has gone farther than we originally expected.

Here I leave a link to information about the coronavirus prepared by the UEA in Esperanto. For now, we have to say Ĝis Baldaŭ!