Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary Fact Sheets Fact Published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary Text and Photos: Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development , Text: Márton Bodó, Preliminary work: Andorás Rakovszky Edited by: Zsuzsanna Patkó, Gyula Somogyi || Graphic design: Árpád Fákó, Zoltán Vass || Printed by: Pharma Press || Budapest, 2012 on Hungary oSn Hhuengeary ts O R S F K I D Do you know where the Hungarians BUSÓJÁRÁS: THE BUSÓ FESTIVITIES AT MOHÁCS living in the middle of Europe came from? The Hungarian nation emerged as a mixture of several peoples during its history. The map shows that the Hungarians probably had their original E L homeland outside Europe, somewhere east of the Ural Mountains. P At about 4000 B.C., they probably lived by Hungarians, who already practiced eques - with these peoples. King Saint Stephen O fishing and hunting between the Ural trian tactics, easily subjugated the peoples (997–1038), who founded the state by mak - E Mountains and the River Ob. ey gradu - in the region. e majority of present-day ing Western Christianity the official reli - P ally moved westwards and merged with Hungarians are descendants of the 500,000 gion, referred to the mixed composition of N other peoples living in tribal confedera - “conquering Hungarians” who moved in the nation in his Admonitions written to his A tions. At that time, the Moravian Empire the Carpathian Basin in 895. e previous son, Prince Emery: “A country with one lan - I collapsed in the Carpathian Basin, so the settlers of the Carpathian Basin mixed guage and one custom is weak and fallible.” R A G N U H E H T F O N I The Mohács busójárás is an end-of-winter procession ing the masks. This widely known festivity of the Šokci val season in Mohács, the centre of the old folk habit, and ritual masquerade ball at the end of the Carnival of Mohács was held from the morning of Shrove Sun - in Kóló tér, a place where the disguised busós gather. G season, which the UNESCO included in the Represen - day to the evening of Shrove Tuesday. The busójárás As the old Busó cannon goes off, various groups I tative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hu - belongs to the family of festivities, also found among march along the main street as far as the main square R manity in 2009. The six-day mummery developed into the beliefs of other peoples, which bid farewell to to celebrate Carnival by making a tremendous noise a public celebration of national fame, accompanied by winter, welcome spring, secure protection and prac - on the banks of the Danube and in neighbouring O dance and music, where the participants are the in - tice magic for fertility. It is akin to the Rio and Venice streets. At dusk they return to the main square to habitants of the town, groups of busó, the accompa - Carnivals as well as to African folk customs. The dance and play pranks on people around a huge burn - E nying musicians and dancers, and the artisans mak - busójárás still starts on the last Sunday of the Carni - ing bonfire where they symbolically incinerate winter. H T 1 What is the Do you know how someone could meaning of “magyar” become king in Hungary? and “hungarus ”, As a unique Hungarian tradition, any person who wanted to be king of the country had to be crowned with the crown two names of the of Saint Stephen, the first Hungarian king, by the country’s first prelate, the Archbishop of Esztergom, in the then capital Székesfehérvár. Hungarian people? e Holy Crown consists of two parts. moved and bent to fit the other crown. clude the crown, the orb, the sceptre, e Magyars, who appeared in Europe isation. e ethnonym Magyar as the (895). e drawing shows a 9 th century e upper one is called Latin and the Probably, this copy was Saint Stephen’s the sword and the robe. e crown, the s in the 800s, had an unknown origin, nation’s own name appeared relatively Hungarian male outfit as imagined lower one is called the Greek hoop Bible and secured a link with the her - sceptre and the robe were made in the l so the historians who wrote in differ - late in written records. It means men creatively by a famous Hungarian crown. e lower part shows Géza I itage of the State Founder. Since the first century of the Kingdom of Hun - o ent languages referred to the Hungar - of Hungarian nationality. archaeologist based on metal orna - (1074–1077), king of Hungary, who main proof of inheritance was that gary. Nowadays, the coronation in - b ians by various names in addition to According to another tradition, ments found in graves and in writ- received the crown as a gift together someone declared himself the succes - signia are kept in the Parliament build - Ma - m their own. e name onogur → ungar gyar goes back to the name of the ten sources. A reason why it is hard with his enamel portrait after an east - sor of Saint Stephen, it is hard to imag - ing. e Fundamental Law, which was y → hungarus comes from onogur ‘ten Megyer tribe, which gave a prince to to remember the past is that the ern campaign. e upper crown could ine that any element of the crown was adopted in 2011, declares that the s riders’, i.e. a people of ten tribes, and the Hungarian tribal confederation at graves preserved only metal and bone have originally been an ornament on unrelated to Hungary’s first king. e crown is one of the Hungarian na - refers to the Hungarians’ tribal organ - the time of the Hungarian Conquest objects. the Bible of King Béla III, later re - coronation insignia which survived in - tional symbols. l s a l n o What is the Hungarian flag like? Do you know whom the Hungarians call the State Founder and why? o b i The Hungarian flag consists of three bands of equal Prince Árpád realised that he should estab - 1301. In other words, while the Hungarian width in red, white and green. These colours became lish a state to survive in the long run. state was founded by Árpád, the name T m so popular in the 1848 revolution that they were In about 893, he founded a princi - State Founder usually refers to King a y made the Hungarian nation’s symbol by a law in April pality to rule a tribal confedera - Saint Stephen. Succeeding his fa - 1848. These colours were first used in the flags of the tion in the territory of present- ther as a prince in 997, he n s medieval Kingdom of Hungary and in the Hungarian day Hungary, and he is cred - turned the principality which royal family’s red and white coat of arms. ited for the Hungarian Con - emerged from the Hungarian l The colours of the Hungarian flag are the same as the quest, i.e. the settlement of tribal confederation into the Italian tricolour, only their order and arrangement his people in the Carpathian united Christian Kingdom of a are different. When the Italian air force flies in the Basin. His successors, Hungary in 1000. To sym - right angle at parades, they paint the sky with the Prince Géza and his son, bolise this, he asked for a n Hungarian colours. Saint Stephen, adopted crown from the Pope. In the o Christianity and consolidated depictions, the dual cross in i Hungary as a state in Chris - Saint Stephen’s hand is a sym - T tian Europe. The descendants bol of the founder of the Chris - of Árpád were the members of tian state and 10 bishoprics. The a the Hungarian royal family known sword shows that it took a lot of as the Árpád Dynasty, which ruled until struggles to establish a united kingdom. n 2 3 and lingui ical stic origin ca erent? g n be diff s e lo What animals do Hungarian myths trace d g o Hungarian has been the official language n yo e a o u p of Hungary since 1844. It is the mother tongue the people’s descent from? g u D k e o n l r of the animal and couldn’t kill it de - Hungarians sent a white horse, a gilded g of roughly 15 million people and as such the o h nd spite a long quest. While chasing the saddle and a halter to the Moravian n t d w 62 language in the world. Hungarian is n stag, they wandered over the Maeotian Prince, who was reigning alongside the a n a t h t a marshes (Sea of Azov) until they found Danube, and asked for soil, grass and thought to be related with the Finno-Ugric a l a suitable pasture for their animals and water in return. “Take as much as you branch of the Uralic language family. s n settled down there. At some point, want for this gift”, the unsuspicious e closest relatives of Hungarian are h a Hungarian origin myths and legends they discovered the wives and children prince answered. Árpád occupied Pan - T i the Ob-Ugric languages, Ostyak and have recurring motifs, including the of an unknown people, who lived in nonia (Hungary) and drove away the y r Vogul. While the Finns and the Hun - world tree, the magic stag, the saker tents without their men and were prince on the grounds of this cunning m a garians do not understand each other, falcon and the white mare.