"So what do you do at a Vegetarian Congress?"

Well, perhaps a more descriptive title these days would be 'Vegan Festival'. The question was in San Francisco, and most Americans probably equate 'congress' with something to do with government, but it's not, and all the food has been vegan for many years, despite the name.

The first ever International Vegetarian Congress was in 1889 (yes, eighteen) when a group from the two main British vegetarian societies went over to Cologne to spend a weekend with some from the two main German societies.

There were about 100 people present, and they had lectures from eminent speakers, discussions, lots of good food and boat trips on the Rhine. The basic format is much the same today, but generally bigger, longer and with many more countries represented.

After that first congress there was one in London, then another in 1893 at the World's Fair in Chicago.  The photo below is from Chicago 1893:

These were co-ordinated by the Vegetarian Federal Union, which was really just a one-man show in London, and it ended when the very wealthy one-man ran out of money in 1903.

In 1908 the various national vegetarian societies founded the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) and we're still going strong today, having celebrated the centenary with a congress back in Germany again in 2008. They were held every 2 or 3 years in between, apart from the war years. The photos below are from Dresden 2008:

The 39th IVU World Vegetarian Congress will be in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 1-6, 2010; with an optional few days in Bali - and the possibility of staying on in Bali or visiting other parts of South East Asia afterwards.

I was at the Asian Vegetarian Congress on Batam island, Indonesia, last November - and was amazed at the resources the Indonesian Vegetarian Society can bring together for something like this. There were about 1,000 of us there, and huge numbers of well organized volunteers. I know they'll do an equally great job of looking after us all in Jakarta.

Full details are at: www.wvc2010.org - do come and join us.

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