Honoring memories

When we did our Fulbright orientation last September, one of the things that was emphasized was that history is very important in Hungary. Not only that, but that Hungarians remember their history, and find current significance by looking at connections with the past.

This is a pretty novel idea for most Americans, who typically have an extremely vague knowledge of our country's history. I found this idea impressive and admirable. I've been doing my own reading of US history (selected, mostly 20th century) over the past couple of years, and have found it very helpful in understanding our culture. I need to keep reading and filling in my (many, large) gaps, but hey -- progress is progress.

We were privileged to be in Hungary during the anniversary of the 1956 revolution to get the Soviets out of Hungary. It started on October 22, 1956, with students bringing their demands to the politicians. It continued on October 23, 1956, when the citizens of Budapest began actively ejecting them. Although the revolution was largely lead by students, and they were very poorly armed -- mainly with improvised weapons -- it was successful. For five days Budapest was free of Soviety intervention, and it breaks my heart to read about the sane and practical plans that the Hungarian people had for their nation. It breaks my heart because after five days the Soviety Union came back in with crushing force, and decimated the opposition, so that brief renaissance was never allowed to develop.

October 23 is a national holiday in Hungary, and I was curious to see how it would be "celebrated." I guess maybe that's not really the right word, because it's not an event to be celebrated, exactly, since thousands of Hungarians died during the revolution, and many many more died when the Soviets returned. But really, I think October 23 is a day to be celebrated. That act of rebellion incredibly brave, selfless, and idealistic. Even though it didn't result in independence, it was an amazing act.

So I was excited to go up to Budapest to witness the 62nd anniversary of the revolution. On October 22, the boys and I took the train up, and met a friend (and fellow Fulbrighter.) We were, in turn, meeting his friend, who happens to have been a student at the engineering university in October 1956, and who participated in the revolution.

We all met on the Pest (east) side of the Danube river by the Petőfi bridge (named for the famous Hungarian poet and freedom fighter, Sándor Petőfi), and walked across to the Buda (west) side, then turned left to follow the river south to the ELTE campus, where the memorial events were starting.

There was a wreath-laying ceremony with various officials talking, and some people singing, and I had my first look at an "uprising" flag -- the Hungarian flag that has a hole through the middle of it. The history here is that, after the Soviets took over Hungary, they put a star in the middle of the Hungarian flag. During the 1956 revolution, someone cut the star out as a symbol that Hungarians were freeing themselves from Soviet control. It remains as an important political symbol even today.

They also had some old trucks from the time period that were decorated with flags, and just generally very cool. Several boys that I know enjoy trucks, and even got to sit in the driver's seat. It was definitely a high point of the day. They used the trucks for a practical purpose, too -- to carry people who had movement limitations from one memorial site to the next.

After the wreath-laying ceremony, we walked a short distance up the street to one of the ELTE buildings, where there were more ceremonies inside. Most of us couldn't go in -- it was by invitation only for the first bit. But after a while the event opened up, and we went in and watched. I couldn't understand most of what was said, of course, but it was still interesting and impressive. There was some fabulous music, too. Have I mentioned that musicians in Hungary are amazing? If not, here's my first mention. I suspect it won't be the last.

Probably the most surprising thing that happened that day was that when we went back outside after this second round of speeches, there was a huge crowd of people outside, and most of them had torches. And they were on fire. I'd never been in a crowd of people with lit torches, and there is a significant energy when there's that many people and that much fire. Everyone was very mellow, so it wasn't an angry mob or anything, but wow. That's a lot of fire.

We asked around and acquired a few torches, and the crowd started walking north, along the banks of the Danube, taking the same route that the students had taken when they marched in 1956. It was a beautiful walk, and an unexpectedly beautiful day. Very chill police officers walked along with the procession, and it was clear that the torches were expected -- there were metal barrels at intervals to put one's spent torch end in. We did see a few dropped on the ground, of course, but most people were responsible about disposing of them.

We walked until we were across the river from Parliament. It was dusk, and the lights were on, and it was a gorgeous view. There were more speeches in the square where we stopped, and more music, and then they did a light show on the building beside the square. It was a pretty incredible experience, but by that point it was pretty late, and we were all hungry and tired, so we adjourned to a coffee shop for a snack, and then headed home for dinner.

The next day, which was October 23, there were a bunch more official events, but we were pretty tired, so we decided not to attend. As we headed out from our friend's apartment, we met his new neighbor and her two golden retrievers, a very old, white one named Pitypang (Dandelion) and young and bouncy one named Bátor (Brave). (Hence I will ever after remember the word for "brave" in Hungarian.)

We chatted for a while, and said what we'd been doing the previous day. "Oh yes," the neighbour said, "We'll be going out this afternoon to protest the Orbán government." I was a little astonished at her frankness. But perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. Although Orbán won a significant majority in the 2018 elections, he's not a popular candidate. (Sound familiar?) It's complicated, so I won't even attempt to untangle it here. I'm also not even sure I exactly understand all of it. But what relieves me the most is that people are becoming more politically active -- much more than they have been in recent years. So yes. Get out and vote. Make your voice heard. Protest when you feel called to. We have the luxury of being able to protest safely. I pray that we won't need to do anything like the brave citizens of Budapest did in October 1956 in order to have our voices heard, though!