Following repeated complaints from Poland's religious conservatives, the popular bus route 666 to Hel in the country's north will now be known as 669.
For some, including English-speaking tourists, Route 666—which travelers use to reach the resort of Hel's sandy beaches—has taken on a humorous quality.
Conservative religious individuals, however, assert that the route "spreads Satanism.".
Hel is one "l" short of the word "hell" in the English language, and the Bible names 666 as the "number of the beast.".
We are turning the last 6 upside down!, the bus company PKS Gdynia declared in response to the complaints.
The number 669 was "less controversial," according to the firm's designer Marcin Szwaczyk, who gave this explanation to the trojmiasto . pl news website.
Although some Poles might not understand the connection between 666 and the word "hell" given that the word is "pieklo" in Polish, a number of social media users in the nation have criticized the impending change, which the bus company says is scheduled to happen on June 24.
Krzysztof Nadolski stated, "It was a global advertisement.".
I frequently read articles about the Route 66 to Hel on foreign websites or in Facebook groups. I have no doubt that some tourists took bus route 666 for amusement even though they could have arrived by train more quickly. ".
Kamil Galczynski asserted that this was "a perfect example of how NOT to do marketing," while Dawid Jastrzebski joked, "What is Hel without 666.".
"I think that the next step should be to change the name of the town of Hel to something else because it is against our Christian Polish roots," Robert Eryk Wozniak, another social media user, wrote.
Poland is a predominantly Roman Catholic country where the Church has long had sway.
Religious conservatives from one Polish group have claimed that the bus company PKS Gdynia is "spreading Satanism" over the past few years.
The Baltic Sea coast is where Route 666 typically travels during the summer. The area is well known as a popular vacation spot and has miles of sandy beaches.
