“Emese’s Dream” is one of the earliest known tales from Hungarian history. The legend can be tentatively dated to around 860–870 CE, and with certainty to between 820 and 997 CE (between the birth of Álmos and the mass acceptance of Christianity).
Parliamentary resolution 32/2004. (IV. 19.): “Protected, native, and ancient Hungarian animal species have their roles in education, the arts, and the preservation of our national identity. They represent an aesthetic value and their genome has economic significance … We consider the animal species listed in the attached document to be native and at the same time—in their names and appearance—symbols of Hungary.”
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Parliamentary modifying bill nr. 2013/ T/10273. Jobbik promotes an openly anti-Roma and anti-Semitic ideology and is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly.
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“Arvisuras” means “truthfulness.” The story is based on an oral myth transcribed by a simple steel worker, Zoltán Paál, in the 1950s and ’60s. According to legend, while Paál was in captivity during WWII, he was initiated by a Soviet partisan-shaman into a secret tradition. Following the war, Paál spent his years transcribing the myth, resulting in a literary work of more than ten thousand pages entitled Sealed With Blood. The work was partially published in 1972 and almost entirely published in 1998.
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Gyula Gömbös is still an honorary citizen of Szeged. Local Fidesz and Jobbik MPs blocked the withdrawal of his honorary citizenship in 2011. The archive of the Turul Association was almost entirely lost during the siege of Budapest in 1944, but an interesting fact remains: starting in the mid-1930s, communist students with subversive intentions enrolled in the group, which led to a schism in 1943.
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For a map showing the Turul monuments throughout the territory of prewar Greater Hungary, see →.
This text is based on a lecture given within the framework of the exhibition Like a Bird: Avian Ecologies in Contemporary Art, curated by Maja and Reuben Fowkes (Trafó Gallery, Budapest, December 2013–January 2014).