Coronavirus related news of Hungary on the 26th February 2021

As we wrote in our previous blog post, the 3rd wave of the coronavirus pandemic has hit Hungary as well, there have been more and more new cases and they have extended the Covid-19 related restrictions and border closure until at least the 15th of March. Probably they will be extended even until after this date. Our daily free tours in Budapest are still not running until further notice.

As said in our previous articles, vaccination started in Hungary, with 5 different vaccines. Right now there are about 522 000 people that got the first round and about 240 000 individuals that got the second round of the vaccination. Official news say that there could be about 2.5 million Hungarians vaccinated until this Easter out of the 10 million people living in our country.

Pic taken from : koronavirus.budapest. hu

Remembering the Victims of Communist Dictatorships on the 25th of February

The commemoration of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Communist Dictatorships (or the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Communism) was adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Hungary on 13 June 2000. According to this, Memorial Day for the Victims of Communism is held on February 25 every year in secondary education institutions.

Béla Kovács, Secretary General of the Independent Smallholders’ Party (FKGP), was arrested by the Soviet authorities on this day in 1947 for his opposition to the Communists and taken to the Soviet Union, where he spent eight years in captivity, first in the Gulag and then from September 25, 1951 in the State Security Ministry’s Central Prison, in Moscow.

The arrest and detention of the politician was the first step on the path by which the Communist Party eliminated its opponents and thus moved towards the establishment of a total one-party dictatorship. The case thus became a symbol of the disregard for democracy and freedoms that characterized the nearly 50-year rule of communism. Béla Kovács became a role model for people who were considered victims of the party state regime.

Photo of statue of Béla Kovács taken from: wikipedia

The Black Book of Communism puts the number of victims of communism worldwide at about 100 million, according to estimates and archival research. In Central and Eastern Europe, the number of victims of famine, forced labor camps or executions reaches one million, but the victims of the system are also those imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, stigmatized, persecuted for their group or religious affiliation, ie everyone deprived of the opportunity for free action and choice, mutilated physically and spiritually. You can learn more about the Communist Dictatorship in Hungary (~1948-1989) on our free Communism walking tour in Budapest, when we can be back doing tours and showing you our city & culture.

Latest Covid-19 related news of Hungary

Since our last blog post there has not been any changes to restrictions in Hungary, please click on the following link to read about the latest Covid-19 news and restrictions of our country:

Carnival Season = Farsang in Hungary

Farsang in Hungarian is the name of the period from Epiphany (Vízkereszt in Hungarian, on January 6th) to Pancake day (Húshagyó kedd in our language, it is before Ash Wednesday, it is the 47th day before Easter Sunday), to the beginning of Lent. It is traditionally celebrated with happy feasts, balls, fun, folk festivals. The characteristic of the carnival season is that there is no important religious holiday associated with it in the Christian liturgical calendar, it is mostly based on folk traditions. Carnival events from pre-Christian times were prohibited in the 16th and 17th centuries, because of their wild customs mostly symbolizing lust, hedonism. In Hungary during old times, Farsang was also a period of mating and was also an important “wedding season” as it was already forbidden to hold a wedding during the Easter fast period.

The highlight of Farsang is the carnival. This period of the last three days from Carnival Sunday to Pancake day is actually a winter farewell, too. Famous carnivals (the Rio Carnival, the Venetian Carnival) are held in many cities around the world, and in Hungary the most notable event of the carnival is the ‘Busójárás’ in Mohács, a city on the southern part of Hungary, close to Serbia.

The Busójárás

Busójárás is a celebration of the Šokci people living in the town of Mohács, Hungary, held annually at the end of the Carnival season, Farsang, ending the day before Ash Wednesday. The celebration features Busós (people wearing traditional scary masks) and it includes folk music, parades and dancing, masquerading. There are 2 reasons why they dress up in scary costumes:

1. To scare winter away
2. To scare the Turks away… (A big part of Hungary was under Ottoman occupation between 1541 and 1699)

The Busójárás lasts for six days and it is held usually during February. Ten thousands of people visit this event and since 2009 it has been on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list.

Photo: alfatours. hu

Photo: promenad. hu

A delicious thing we eat at Farsang

The Farsang Doughnut or Farsangi fánk as we call it in Hungarian. It is a soft yeast cake, we deep-fry it and fill it with fruit jam or eat it empty with some powdered sugar on top, yummy! Once we are back on track after the Covid-19 restrictions are eased, you can learn about more delicious Hungarian sweets on our Free walking tours in Budapest!

Photo of doughnuts: kifoztuk. hu