Magyar Ides of March

The streets will be thronging with people. You will see many wearing cocardes (ribbons with the Hungarian national colors; red, white and green, pictured) pinned to lapels and waving miniature flags with special inscriptions. Other memorabilia will be on sale in the streets.

All this to remember that fateful day in 1848 when the young poet Sándor Petôfi stood on the steps of the newly-inaugurated National Collection (now the National Museum) to recite the now famous "Summons" calling on Hungarians to rise up against the oppressive Austrian Habsburg regime.

Petôfi’s bronze statue dominates Március 15 tér (March 15 square) on the Pest side of the Danube by Erzsebet Bridge and will be the scene again this year of commemorative events organized by Mayor of Budapest Gábor Demszky on the steps of the National Museum and in front of Parliament.

Petôfi’s electrifying words, "Rise up Hungarian, and throw off your chains, the country calls... slave ye shall no longer be..." will be declaimed here, as at every other site of the March 15 commemorations in the capital, in every town and settlement in Hungary, and in Hungarian communities all around the globe.

During the dark of Communism, March 15 was suppressed as a national holiday, but was officially reinstated 10 years ago. How apt these words are for Hungarians who can now celebrate March 15 in unison.

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lajos Kossuth, the charismatic, highly-controversial political and military leader of the unsuccessful Revolt of 1848. Special tributes will be paid to this monumental political figure, born in Monok in 1802, who set up the new Hungarian Republic in Debrecen in 1848-49 and who fled into exile when the revolt failed in the fall of 1849.

Kossuth’s skill as a speaker earned him ovations in Washington and a ticker-tape parade in New York, and his heroic bronze statue graces many city parks in the United States.

This March 15, wreaths will be laid at the Kossuth statue complex in the park at the north wing of Parliament.

Kossuth was a rabid anti-monarchist and was dubbed a "thick-necked Reformatus", since he was a Protestant in a country which was, for the most part, Roman Catholic. Count Lajos Batthyány and other members of the wealthy landowning aristocracy were included in the initial government Kossuth formed in 1848. Ironically, most of these aristocrats owed their titles to the Habsburgs.

Kossuth is said to have wanted to throw the Holy Crown of Hungary, the most precious icon for Hungarians, into the Danube.

In fact, Kossuth ordered the crown removed from Hungary for safekeeping, and sent it to be buried in Transylvania in order to save it being taken off to Vienna by the Austrians.

You may see people wearing the classic 1848 coat of arms called "Kossuth Crest," which is the traditional crest of Hungary as we know it today but without the Holy Crown topping the shield, with the three Hungarian mountains (Tatra, Matra, Fatra) in the left field and seven stripes in the right field (for the seven Hungarian conquering tribes) alternated with four stripes for the four main rivers of Hungary (the Duna, or Danube, the Tisza, the Drava and the Sava).

The shield was also adopted by the freedom fighters of 1956 as their emblem of the hoped-for free autonomous Hungary.

The tentative Program of events for March 15 is as follows;

9am Kossuth square in front of Parliament, military parade and wreath-laying in front of Kossuth’s statue (still to be confirmed)

10am On the National Museum steps from which Petôfi called out his famous rallying verse for freedom, a troupe of young actors will re-enact the electrifying events which sparked the 1848 Revolution.

11am Mayor Demszky leads the ceremonies on Március 15 tér, at the foot of Petôfi’s statue. Since this is election year speeches will be loaded with heavy political content. The ceremonial laying of wreaths and schoolchildren placing flags in the ground around the statue will follow.

This will be followed by a Revolutionary People’s Celebration in the park adjacent, the site of 1st century AD Roman ruins. The skit attempts to recreate some of the events and major figures of the 1848 freedom fight.

The Nemzeti Múzeum (National Museum) is also celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, having been founded by the magnanimous counts Ferenc Széchenyi and his son István, whom Kossuth called "the greatest of Hungarians". In 1802, Széchenyi offered up the annual income of his vast estates in order to establish what would subsequently become the National Museum, the Szépmûvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts) and the National Library, also called the Széchenyi könyvtár (Széchenyi Library), in order to preserve for posterity the best works of fine art, literature and historical documents of the Hungarian people.

On March 1 the One Thousand Years of Christian Hungary exhibition, which opened last year in the Vatican museums, will open at the National Museum in Budapest.

On view will be precious objects, including historic artifacts, paintings, manuscripts, books, sculpture, weavings, liturgical objects made of precious metals and adorned with jewels, carved ivory plaques and containers.

They will date back from the very earliest presence of Christianity in the Pannonian Basin during the Roman settlement in the 1st - 4th century, followed by the period of "Barbarian" invasions in the 5th- 9th century, followed by the coming of the Magyar who converted to Christianity with the coronation of their king, St Stephen, at Christmas in 1000, which represents the Medieval period.

Relics of the great Renaissance king Mátyás Corvinus are the stupendous Corvina, which are the rare illuminated manuscripts including the Ancient Greek and Roman writers, as well as missals and other liturgical books ordered by the King from the foremost Italian illuminators.

Mátyás’s library was sadly dispersed after his death, but the Vatican exhibition and the Széchenyi Library now present nearly all the Corvina now in existence on this special occasion.

Significant objects from the Baroque period right up to the present day were gathered together for the exhibition in the Vatican museums in Rome. Many have been loaned to Hungary and are included in the Vatican exhibition which will stay open for around three months in Budapest. A fully-illustrated catalog is available with gorgeous color plates.

Count Széchenyi is being specially commemorated on this 200th anniversary and the National Library is mounting a special exhibition to honor the magnanimous patron.

Ferenc Széchenyi’s statue stands in the north side of the Museum Park right across from the entrance to what is today the Italian Cultural Institute. It was built after the Historic Compromise with the Austrians in 1867, by architect Miklós Ybl, to serve as Hungary’s first Upper House, while the Lower House met in the Museum’s Aula until the huge building we know as Parliament, by architect Imre Steindl, was completed at the turn of the century.

March 15 is also the opening of the new Nemzeti Színház (National Theater) and many celebrities will be attending the special opening event, the Tragedy of Man by Imre Madács, the great 19th century writer who in his masterpiece chronicled the story of humankind, beginning with Adam and Eve. Hungarians have traditionally held this piece in great esteem.

The building of the new theater has been quite problematic and fraught with controversy. Something about letting Hungarians speak out in their own tongue on the stage always bothered the oppressor of the moment.

During the Habsburg regime two national theaters were destroyed. The third national theater building, erected in the late 19th century after the Compromise with the Austrians, stood on Blaha Lujza tér until it was simply blown up by the Communist regime on the pretext that it would not survive the building of the second Metro line.

Madács’ Tragedy of Man was banned from the stage during the Communist and Socialist regimes, due to its stirring strong content.

Thus, the month of March will bring many exciting events to Budapest, the rest of the country and Hungarians the world over.

Click here for the Source – Budapest Sun Online