15th March, our national holiday in spring has presented us this year with a 4 day long weekend. Very thoughtful and kind of a holiday. Thanks.
Also very thoughtful of google to adorn its logo for this occasion - even if it is rather ugly...
I have mentioned earlier that our national holidays do not tend to celebrate very joyful occasions. They rather remember brave confrontation against the oppressing powers – which finally ended being fought down. Sadly, we do not have a holiday to remember how we tried to kick the Turkish Empire out of our land, but the Habsburgs and Russians have a resereved day for themselves in our calendar. The uprising against the Soviet Russia is commemorated on 23 October, whilst, the anniversary of the start of the freedom fight of 1848 falls on 15 March.As many times happens, the revolution was set on fire by the youth, the so called „youngsters of macrh” . Visit the Pilvax coffehouse near to Váci street to imagine all those young poets, artists and politicians, who were gathering in these cafes and discussed important matters and were planning to change the destiny of their country. Leading figure was Sándor Petőfi, poet and fighter who dreamed of dying among bullets instead of pillows – eventually his dream came true as the fight went on till 1849. Petőfi is our most international poet with his works being translated into hundreds of languages- I even came accross a street in Milan named after him J
Pilvax coffeouse has now become a restaurant and the design has changed since those times but it is still worth a visit.
From Pilvax, walk to the National Museum and linger in its garden. On the permanent exhibition you can get closer to understanding the complicated Hungarian history.
The legend goes that here Petőfi proclaimed the 12 points (naming all the claims to liberate Hungary from the Habsburg empire) and the poem „National Song” which has become the symbol of the 1848-49 revolution. We learn it in schools, by heart of course, and then recite it on the school preformances celebrating 15th March rereating the tense situation of those times.
I do not know if it was cool to play Petofi or not… Actually, I do remember little of these plays although they were always kind of the same year by year. I do not know if we Hungarians really care for these holidays anymore. I am sure we should but I think nobody is sure about the way. In the case of 15th March even the tiny symbol (wearing a tricolor cockade) got into trouble. Yesterday, a little kokárda (a little flower like thingy made of the colours of the flag) adorned each magyar patriots left side of the chest, the closest to the heart as possible of course. Playing dress up sounds quite fun… However in the last years, as we are struggling to come in terms with our national identity, even the innocent kokárda has fallen int he middle of a political debate.
Discuss the topic of nationalism with Hungarians if you are interested, and you will be surprised by the variety of answers. And do not forget to take beers while chatting and now, since the 150 years after the defeat of the revolution have passed (the Habsburgs toasted with beer on their victory), you are allowed to toast with it so do it.
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