3/17/2018 – The American Hungarian Federation’s annual commemoration of Hungarian National Day and the anniversary of its historic 1848 democratic revolution led by Louis Kossuth for 2018 was held at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, DC on March 10th. The keynote addresses were provided by Zsigmond Perényi, Hungarian Deputy Secretary for International Affairs and AHF Chairman Frank Koszorus, Jr.
Hungarian Ambassador, Dr. Szabó László, gave opening remarks. The keynote addresses were provided by Zsigmond Perényi, Hungarian Deputy Secretary for International Affairs, and AHF Chairman Frank Koszorus, Jr.
In keeping with tradition, the Hungarian Scouts of Washington led the audience in patriotic performance, “Emlékezz velünk” (remember with us) and “Kossuth Dalok” (patriotic Kossuth songs). The event closed with Reverend Judit Máyer.
Mr. Koszorus remarks, “The Spirit of Kossuth” are below and available for [download]:
Statement of Frank Koszorus, Jr.
On the Occasion of the Commemoration of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848Washington, D.C.
March 10, 2018Your Excellency, Mr. Deputy Assistant Minister, Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, future leaders of our community!
A fleeting thought crossed my mind as I was planning the program for this year’s commemoration of the Revolution and War of Independence of 1848 – 1849, a commemoration my organization the American Hungarian Federation has sponsored since its founding in 1906.
Why do we come together every Ides of March? Why are we not taking a walk in the park on the eve of spring or watching March Madness? Why do we instead sing Kossuth songs, recite the same poetry, listen to speeches about ‘old, dead white men?
What ‘relevance,’ does all of this have for us today? Haven’t we already and many times over heard the, ‘All for the people and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people. That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit of our age,” words uttered by Lajos Kossuth over a decade before President Abraham Lincoln’s famed ‘for the people, by the people’ speech given at Gettysburg in 1863?
As I pondered the question, I was reminded of Theodore Roosevelt’s eloquent words when on April 2, 1910 in the Hungarian parliament he said, “There is no more illustrious history than the history of the Magyar nation. . . . The whole civilized world is indebted to Magyarland for its historic deeds.”
And there are moments when Hungarian and American histories are inextricably linked, as today when both are NATO allies or in 1849 when Kossuth, known as the Champion of Liberty, was strongly influenced by America’s Declaration of Independence when Hungary sought its independence from Vienna.
Kossuth himself noted, “The Declaration of Independence cast a ray of consolation over the injured land whose chief is a wandering exile for having dared to imitate you.” And indeed, what a powerful model the American Declaration is — one to be voluntarily imitated, not imposed from the outside:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
So then it becomes self evident that one reason we commemorate today is to preserve a proud heritage and honor those Hungarians who by their actions wrote a history, to which, in Theodore Roosevelt’s words, “the whole civilized world is indebted.”
But there is another equally if not more compelling reason. Rackoczi, Szechenyi, Petofi, Kossuth, the Hungarian heroes who helped save lives during the Holocaust, Nagy Imre and the Pesti srac of 1956 and the democrats of over twenty years ago who abolished an oppressive form of government, just to mention a few, guide and inspire us.
Their principles and tremendous sacrifice impose a special responsibility on us to remember the democratic values, independence, liberty and sovereignty championed by Kossuth and the Hungarian patriots of the Ides of March.
Since its founding the Federation has proudly and diligently passed on the memory of this rich heritage from generation to generation and continues to do so, especially as one finds so much fake news or fake history cavalierly being spread around about Hungarians in the public domain today.Thank you for your attention and for joining us in this critically important endeavor.
I would particularly like to thank the Scouts — the baton will be passed to you; run with it!
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[Watch the 2014 video on
AHF’s YouTube Channel]
3/26/2018 – On Wednesday, March 21, 2018, the American Hungarian Federation and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation hosted a Congressional Reception commemorating Hungarian National Day, Lajos Kossuth and the 1848 Hungarian War of Independence, and honoring Representatives Andy Harris (R-MD) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Hungarian Caucus who were presented with AHF’s Lajos Kossuth Award in recognition of their support in strengthening U.S. relations with Hungary and of democracy and human and minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe. [Read more]
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- AHF 2017 Commemoration
- AHF 2015 Commemoration
- AHF 2014 Commemoration
- AHF 2013 Commemoration
- AHF 2012 Commemoration
- AHF 2011 Commemoration
- AHF 2010 Commemoration
- AHF 2009 Commemoration
- AHF 2007 Commemoration
- AHF 2006 Commemoration
- AHF 2004 Commemoration
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- About Louis Kossuth
Hear Louis Kossuth Speak! Audio Recording and text of 1890 Louis Kossuth
speech- Audio and text of the Kossuth Anthem, “Kossuth Lajos azt Uzente”
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Today, there are many reminders of Kossuth’s impact on America and the world. In North America, there is a Kossuth County in the state of Iowa, a town with his name in Indiana, Ohio and Mississippi, a settlement with a Kossuth Post Office is in Pennsylvania. In addition, there are Kossuth statues and plaques in New York, Cleveland, Akron, New Orleans, Washington, and Ontario, Canada. The Hungarian Reformed Federation‘s building on Dupont Circle, in Washington, DC is called Kossuth House with a memorial plaque commemorating his speech on democracy. See the picture gallery and memorials on Louis Kossuth in North America.
AHF presents a gift to to the American People: The Kossuth Bust in the US Capitol [read more]
The American Hungarian Federation dedicated a bust that now sits proudly in the US Capitol – it reads, “Louis Kossuth, Father of Hungarian Democracy” [read more]