Why 22 January is so important for Hungarians?

(MTI) – The main attraction of the Hungarian Culture Days will be the Hungarian National Anthem (Himnusz). On its 194th birthday, several cultural programmes are awaiting visitors all over the country.

The Hungarian culture has been celebrated since 1989 on 22 January. According to Ferenc Kölcsey famous Hungarian poet’s manuscript, he finished Himnusz this day in 1823, Magyar Kurír writes. The poem was first published with the title From the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people in Károly Kisfaludy’s Aurora. With the title Himnusz, it was published in 1832 in Kölcsey’s first volume. It is interesting to note that Kölcsey’s manuscript notebook containing Himnusz disappeared in the late 1830s, and when it was found more than a hundred years later, it became the possession of the National Széchenyi Library in 1946.

The musical setting of Himnusz was composed by Ferenc Erkel Hungarian romantic composer. The original pace is faster than how it is played and sang today, but nowadays there are attempts to gradually get back to the original one, Magyar Kurír adds.

On the occasion of Hungarian Culture Days, the original sheet music and manuscript can be first seen in history on 20 and 21 January in Gyula, Magyar Kurír reports. The Deputy Major of the town told that the exhibition of the sheet music and manuscript is the result of a one-year organization work, the support of Deputy State Secretary for Cultural Policy of the Ministry of Human Resources, and the approval of National Széchenyi Library. Normally, these national relics are not available for the general public.