The state government of Bengal has declared a day of celebration for September 11, 2018, to honor the 125th anniversary of when Swami Vivekananda addressed the World’s Parliament of Religions at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Plans include seminars and symposia and a light and sound program at Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house.
From September 7-9, thousands of delegates will gather for the second World Hindu Congress in Lombard, Illinois, with an objective of re-connecting Hindus worldwide with their common heritage and their spiritual link to people of all other denominations.
Swami Vivekananda addressed the World’s Parliament of Religions several times during the 1893 Congress, held in what is now the building of the Art Institute of Chicago. His first speech is reprinted here.
Swami Vivekananda (center) and other East India Delegates to Congress of Religions at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from Pictorial Album and History of the World’s Fair and Midway (Harry T. Smith & Co., 1893).]