The Esperanto star
The green star of Esperanto: who first proposed it, how it became the movement’s flag and what Zamenhof said about the green, compared with later readings.
A green five-pointed star: this is the symbol of the Esperanto flag, the international language created by Ludwik Zamenhof. It is not the flag of any country, but of the movement that speaks it. Here we explain where the star comes from, when it became a flag and what Zamenhof said about the colour.
Where the star comes from
The star appeared before the flag. In 1892, La Esperantisto, the first publication in Esperanto, proposed a green star as a sign of recognition among Esperantists. According to the letter from Zamenhof cited by Wikipedia, Louis de Beaufront was the first to use it, in his grammar of the language.
The flag
The flag was created by the Esperanto Club of Boulogne-sur-Mer for its own use. The first World Esperanto Congress, held in that same town in 1905, decided to adopt it as the flag of the whole movement. Sources do not agree on who designed the version used today or on who proposed the green.
What the green means
Here the primary source should be separated from later readings:
- Zamenhof: in a letter of 1911, published in The British Esperantist in February 1912, he wrote that the green could be seen as a symbol of hope. He explains that Richard Geoghegan drew his attention to green as the colour of Ireland, and that he took the star from Beaufront.
- The five points: the reading of the five continents does not appear in Zamenhof’s letter. It is a later interpretation. Wikipedia attributes it to the anthropologist Monica Heller (2017).
- What is commonly said: that green is hope and that the star represents the world. The first statement has a basis in Zamenhof’s letter; the second does not.
