1956-os forradalom ünnepe

On 23 October 1956 a student march through Budapest turned into a revolution against the Soviet-backed regime: the crowd toppled the Stalin statue, fighting broke out at the Radio building, and Imre Nagy became prime minister of a free government. Soviet tanks crushed the uprising in early November, and Nagy was executed in 1958. Exactly thirty-three years later, on 23 October 1989, the Republic of Hungary was proclaimed from the Parliament balcony, and the date became a national holiday.

The day is solemn rather than festive. In the morning the national flag is raised with military honours on Kossuth tér in front of Parliament, followed by the state commemoration, wreath-laying at memorials and speeches. The flag with a hole in the middle, where the communist coat of arms was cut out in 1956, hangs from windows and balconies. In the evening people light small candles at plot 301 of the New Public Cemetery, where Imre Nagy lies, and students hold a torchlight march from the Technical University to Bem tér, retracing the route of 1956.

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