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Constitution Day, Hungary
Constitution Day is celebrated each year in Hungary on 20th August. The celebration goes by a number of names – National Day, Constitution Day, Foundation Day, St Stephen's Day (Stephen was the first King of Hungary) and the oddly named "Day Of The New Bread".
The date commemorates the adoption of the first Hungarian constitution in 1920, and is traditionally celebrated with a 30 minute fireworks display during the evening on the banks of the Danube in Budapest, which is attended by several hundreds of thousand people. Fireworks are also typical of local celebrations elsewhere.
The Republic of Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia.
For many centuries central Europe was a in a state of flux and conquering nations expanded and were repelled or retreated or themselves conquered. Such was the fate of what we now call Hungary.
In 1867 Hungary became an autonomous part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Government was making an effort to unify the kingdom nationally by "Magyarisation" of the various other nationalities within the newly defined boundaries. This lasted until the end of World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed.
On 16th November 1918, an independent Hungarian Republic was proclaimed within its wider boundaries. However, this did not last more than a few days as, following the World War I settlements, Romania occupied Transylvania and Eastern Hungary, Czechoslovakia Upper Hungary and a joint Serb and French army occupied Southern Hungary. The Entente backed the subsequent annexations of these territories.
In March 1919 the Communists took power, and in April, Béla Kun proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. This Government, like its predecessor, proved to be short-lived despite some initial military successes against the Czechoslovak army.
On 13th June 1919 the Peace Conference in Versailles ordered the evacuation of the Northern territories by Hungary, and the evacuation of the Tiszántúl by Romania. Hungary fulfilled the request on 30th June, but the Romanian army remained in the Tiszántúl. The ensuing war between Hungary and Romania led to the defeat of the Hungarian Soviet Republican army.
By August 1919, more than half of present-day Hungary, including Budapest, was under Romanian occupation, which lasted until November 1919. Rightist military forces, led by the former Austro-Hungarian Admiral Miklós Horthy, entered Budapest in the wake of the Romanian army's departure and filled the political void.
In January 1920, elections were held for a unicameral assembly, and Admiral Horthy was subsequently elected Regent, thereby formally restoring Hungary to the status of a kingdom. However, there were to be no more Kings of Hungary, despite attempts by the former Habsburg king – Charles IV of Hungary (who was also Charles I, Emperor of Austria) - to return to power in March 1921, and again in October 1921. Charles was exiled to Madeira, where he died of pneumonia the following year. In 2004 Charles I/IV was beatified.
Admiral Horthy continued to rule as Regent until 16 October 1944. It was during his period in power that Hungary achieved the dubious distinction of being the first modern nation to pass anti-Semitic laws (the "numerus clausus" laws of the early 1920s, which excluded Jews from higher education).
In this period Hungary remained a Parliamentary Democracy. From 1932 onwards autocratic tendencies gained strength because of the Great Depression and support for the Government from the National Socialists (Nazis) in Germany. In 1944, some 440,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other German camps.
After the Second World War, Hungary became part of the USSR.
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