Czech toponyms that include the adjective ‘Hungarian’ allude to the historical, centuries-old relationship between Hungary and Czechia that has not always been perfect, but nonetheless close. This is a region where the fates of the two countries were intertwined for a long time—the Bohemian–Hungarian frontier.
The spirit and dedication to God of Cardinal Duka were not broken when in prison as an underground clergyman—he kept conducting masses for his prison mates that he disguised as occasions of a chess club. A couple of years ago, in an interview with Mandiner, he said: ‘My personal experience is, as someone who also suffered imprisonment for the sake of justice, is that the question often arises: “who is really the prisoner?”. It was not clear whether it was us or those who were looking at us from the other side of the bars.’
Socialist Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy resigned on 19 August 2004, partially due to his engagement in counter-espionage for the communist regime being exposed by the newly independent and free media.
István Abonyi, the decorated Hungarian chess player, laid the foundations for Hungary becoming one of the most successful chess nations in the world.
The most mouth-watering traditional Hungarian food, the kürtőskalács inspired many regional spit cake varieties.
Baron Bálint Balassi de Kékkő et Gyarmat is celebrated as the pioneer of Hungarian romantic poetry, a valiant soldier, a daring lover and an accomplished polyglot. His life and achievements embody the true spirit of the Renaissance, and read like a tale of romance, valour, and fighting spirit.
The upcoming celebrations on 20 August centre around one of the most magnificent buildings in Budapest: Saint Stephen’s Basilica. That is also where The Holy Dexter, the right hand of Saint Stephen, the first king of the Kingdom of Hungary, is kept.
The Hungarian currency, the forint celebrates its 77th birthday on 1 August. But in reality, the forint’s history can be traced back to as long ago as the 1320s.
Unlike ‘unitary’ bombs, cluster munitions are not single shells; instead, they consist of a dispersive mechanism that releases numerous grenade-like bomblets mid-air, designed to explode upon impact. However, many of these smaller submunitions fail to detonate upon landing, remaining in the ground for extended periods, posing a threat to the civilian populations be they farmers, children playing or any passers-by.
Today we still often think of war in the Clausewitzian terms, as of the ‘continuation of politics by other means’, conducted by one state against another. However, as argued by Mary Kaldor, many armed conflicts have acquired a completely different, de-politicised nature, becoming a new social condition.
Anastasia of Kiev married Hungarian King Andrew I around 1038, before he took the throne and while he was still in exile. She was later involved in the establishment of one of the most renowned monasteries of Hungary, the Tihany Abbey, and is also featured in one of the most famous Hungarian historical paintings.
Throughout its history, Hungarian animal husbandry has selectively bred and nurtured animals that now stand as iconic representations of Hungarian peasant and pastoral culture.
After the recent repeated defiling of the Úzvölgy military cemetery, Hungarians in Romania are now bracing themselves for another provocation in Tusványos.
With the arrival of the summer season, it has become highly disputed in the Hungarian press whether Lake Balaton tourism is decreasing or growing.
Scruton’s motive behind writing the book was to elucidate conservative ideas that were often misunderstood during that period. One of the catalysts for the author’s decision to put his thoughts about conservatism in writing was the French protests of 1968 and the subsequent marked shift to the left within academia.
According to legend, it was Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna who recommended the inclusion of the colour green in the Hungarian flag, as a symbol of hope.
On 12 July, one day after the correction issued by the Ukrainian foreign ministry, some Ukrainian media, including the English language Kyiv Independent, were still posting articles about WizzAir having removed ‘a Ukrainian war veteran’ from its flight. Obviously, the fake news was too conveniently painting a negative picture of Hungary to be just let go by the unapologetically anti-Hungarian Ukrainian press.
Albeit wrongly associated with the political left most of the time, green philosophy is integral to conservatism too. The late, great Roger Scruton believes that environmental protection should be based on one’s love for their local territory and community, and be dictated top-down through a globalist agenda.
The quest to find the ancestral homeland of Hungarians has inspired ventures into the far East for many centuries. The most famous ones were made by Friar Julian in the 13th century. How much of what he purported to have found has been backed up by modern science?
According to the subdivisions within the Uralic language family (also known as Finno-Ugric, if the Samoyedic languages are excluded) Hungarian is indeed related to the relatively widely-spoken Finnish and Estonian languages, even though the Hungarian language belongs to a different branch of the Uralic ‘tree’ than the aforementioned two. Rather than being part of the linguistic continuum of its Northern European kin on the Baltic shores, Hungarian shares stronger linguistic connections with the distant Khanty and Mansi, living as far from Hungary as Western Siberia.
This piece provides an overview of the ‘Goulash communism’ times of Hungarian history, while attempting to answer the question: why do some Hungarians appear to be nostalgic about the Kádár era?
Burke’s work conveys a deep message for modern societies: ‘…it is with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice which has answered in any tolerable degree for ages the common purposes of society.’
Although some celebrated Prigozhin’s mutiny as the weakening of Putin’s Russia, it is important to remember that Prigozhin would not have brought about a ‘better or more democratic Russia’, only an even bloodier war.
With the summer season on, you might be wondering what to do if you are a city person who however
The mysterious Magyarabs, whose denomination conveniently looks as if it consisted of the words Magyar and Arab (although the exact etymology is different: the word ab means tribe in Nubian), would have probably remained unknown to the world had some adventurous Hungarians not discovered their distant kin. László Almásy, one of the key figures and pioneers of Hungarian Africa research, was the first to report on the existence of Magyarabs after he encountered them during his expedition in Africa in the 1930s.
For nature enthusiasts, a visit to the picturesque shores of Lake Fertő/Neusiedl is an absolute must. The beauty of Lake Fertő and its captivating surroundings has earned it a spot on the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage List. It was the joint efforts of Austria and Hungary that resulted in its inclusion on the list, and today the two countries’ have joined forces to safeguard the national park that spans both sides of the border—on the Hungarian part this territory is called the Fertő-Hanság National Park.
A lot remains unknown about the release by Russia of the Hungarian Ukrainian soldiers, including the role that Metropolitan Hilarion played or what the exact status of the freed men is. One things is certain: human lives have been saved amidst the tragic conflict.
The music and operas of Ferenc Erkel greatly contributed to the birth of Hungarian theatre and opera as well as to the emergence of patriotic Hungarian music.
Nowadays there are renewed efforts to reinvigorate and preserve the ancient identity of the Csángós. One of the most notable examples is the Council of Europe’s ‘Csango minority culture in Romania’ report, which, beside being a great overview of Csángó culture, also serves as a call to action to save this unique identity.
As opposed to the simplistic xenophobia narrative, Hungary is a multifaceted country with diverse regions and identities, each of which contributes with its uniqueness to the country’s rich cultural landscape. One of the regions that is a living proof of that is Jászság.