The Esperanto Jubilee Symbol (jubilea simbolo) is a cultural symbol that was created in 1987 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Esperanto international language. Because of its shape, the symbol is sometimes informally called the melon (melono), egg (ovo) or football (rugbea pilko).

With a Latin E on one side and a Cyrillic Э (for Эсперанто) on the other, it can be interpreted as being inclusive of East and West. At the time, the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 was waged between the United States and the Soviet Union, and they represented the largest enemies in the world.

The desire for a more modern-looking symbol for Esperanto arose when many Esperanto speakers felt that the Esperanto flag appeared too sectarian. Nowadays, many people use the Jubilee Symbol to represent the international Esperanto culture

Esperanto culture

The language Esperanto is often used to access an international culture, including a large body of original as well as translated literature. There are over 25,000 Esperanto books as well as over a hundred regularly distributed Esperanto magazines. Many Esperanto speakers use the language for...

 as a whole. For example, the World Esperanto Association

World Esperanto Association

The World Esperanto Association is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with members in 121 countries and in official relations with the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated to UEA...

 and Esperanto-USA use it as their symbol.

Variations of the symbol involve the addition of a green star, the addition of the text "ESPERANTO", a national or local symbol, or a combination of the three. For example the official logo of the Esperanto Association of Britain

Esperanto Association of Britain

The Esperanto Association of Britain is a registered educational charity whose objective is to advance the education of the public in the international language Esperanto....

includes the green star and the word Esperanto.