22nd of January – The day of the Hungarian Culture

On the 22^nd of January in 1823 Ferenc Kölcsey – one of the most important literary characters in Hungarian history – completed his manuscript of the Hungarian National Anthem which is now considered his work of art. It was first mentioned as the national anthem in 1989 and since then the day when the poem was finished is called the Day of Hungarian Culture.

Ferenc Kölcsey (1790 –1838) was a Hungarian poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current inside the Habsburg Empire. At age fifteen he made the acquaintance of Ferenc Kazinczy and adopted his linguistic reforms. Kölcsey’s strong moral sense and deep devotion to his country are reflected in his poems, his often severe but masterful literary criticism, and his funeral orations and parliamentary speeches.

According to the manuscript, kept in the National Museum, he finished his poem on the 22^nd of January, 1823. The poem evoked the glory of Hungary’s past, titled “Hymnus, a’ Magyar nép zivataros századaiból” (Hymn, from the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people), and, eventually, it proved to be the most important Hungarian poem ever written.

Even before the anthem, Hungarians always had a solidary, collective prayer transmitted by folk songs. However, the strength of the togetherness wasn’t always the same and the prayers varied between different churches.

Kölcsey’s Hymnus is an ode, more specifically a hymn, which is one of the most ancient lyric genres. It is essentially a desperate nation’s prayer to God, a nation that lived through much suffering for centuries.