The St. Stephen’s Day celebration organized by the Municipality of Kisnémedi began with the singing of the National Anthem on Saturday afternoon. On the occasion of the founding of our state, Bence Rétvári, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior and the KDNP member of parliament of the region, in his celebratory speech, highlighted the greatness of the statesmanship of our King St. István, who worked to establish and consolidate the 1100-year-old Christian Hungary, the standing of Hungarians in the historical storms of the centuries, and his heroic struggle to protect Europe. He praised the excellent creations of our scientists and inventors, which make the everyday life of humanity easier. Within the framework of the event, the developments implemented in the settlement were ceremoniously handed over, the total value of which reaches HUF 300 million.
After the opening thoughts of Ms. Ágnes Hegyi, the mayor of the village, György Edelman, the mayor of the village, greeted the celebrants, who spoke with a sense of well-being and gratitude in his voice about the developments implemented with the support of the government, the development of the settlement, for which he expressed his appreciation to the member of parliament Bence Rétvári. With kind words, the mayor greeted his colleagues, including Béla Pásztor, who was at the head of Veresegyház for more than 50 years.
In his speech, parliamentarian Bence Rétvári spoke about the historical antecedents of the August 20 holiday, comparing it to the fashionable ideologies of our time, emphasizing that our King St. István “was not connected to fashions, but to the eternal truths he recognized from his faith, and he built his country that way.” He also mentioned that we have many reasons to be proud, listing quite a few Hungarian inventions and our heroic battles for the defense of Europe. “You can list everything from vitamin C, helicopters, telephones, matches, ballpoint pens to nuclear energy, which are all inventions of Hungarian people. But let’s not forget that when the bells are rung at noon, we still think that everywhere in the world they can celebrate that we, Hungarians, defended Christian Europe from the Ottoman, Muslim, and Turkish armies that attacked here. We have something to be proud of,” he emphasized.
Bence Rétvári explained in his extensive historical review, it was already recorded in the Aranybulla that “We should celebrate in Fehérvár on the feast of King Stephen…” He recalled that in 1771, Mária Theresa ordered that Saint Jobb be transported to Buda, and on August 20, he would be carried in a procession on the city.
“In the centuries that followed, there were many occasions when the Saint Jobb Procession was banned, for example, after the defeat of our freedom struggle in 1848-49, Ferenc József re-authorized it after the compromise of 1867, and then again during the Stalinist rule of the 20th century it was forbidden to carry Szent Jobb around, because it is a symbol of independent Hungarian statehood. They couldn’t ban the celebration on August 20, so they tried to make the celebration of King St. István and the Hungarian statehood a celebration of the Stalinist constitution,” recalled the stormy periods of our history covered with dark clouds, and added: since 1990, August 20 has again become St. Our King Stephen, the holiday of Hungarian statehood, and Saint Job can be freely taken around the Basilica again on August 20.
He emphasized that our sovereignty is an important and feared treasure: “We have Hungarian culture, with our Hungarian food and Hungarian songs. When we came, we Hungarians were here 1,100 years ago, or 500,000 of us, who were here several times. But it was not the majority that melted the minority, but we Hungarians melted the majority. Because our culture, our organization, our national consciousness, our identity were stronger. And although the inhabitants of the Carpathian Basin outnumbered the arriving Hungarians, the Carpathian Basin still became Hungarian. 1,100 years later, there are thirty times as many of us here in the Carpathian Basin. There is no country with a larger population or nation in the Carpathian Basin. We do not have a nation with a stronger culture, a stronger army, a stronger economy in the Carpathian basin. So we have something to be proud of, and that’s why our sovereignty, our independence, is an important cherished treasure, that we ourselves can decide about our own affairs,” underlined the state secretary, who rounded off his thoughts with a quote from Sándor Petőfi’s poem: I’m Magyar: “I look proudly/ On the sea of the past, where my eyes/See rocks reaching to the heavens,/Your great deeds, my champion nation./We also played on the stage of Europe, / And ours was not the smallest role…” He continued: “Gyula Illyés also said that a thousand years even nations can live only through miracles.” And indeed, we are a miracle – said the celebratory speaker, who concluded his speech with a quote taken from the admonitions of King Saint István to his son Prince Imre: “All people are born in the same state, and that nothing lifts you up, only humility, and nothing repels you.” down, only pride and hatred. If you become a lover of peace, you will be called a king and a king’s son, and all brave men will love you…”
Let there be peace, freedom and understanding – were the words of Bence Rétvári.
After the celebratory speech, Clerk Ágnes Hegyi explained that in the recent period, HUF 300 million worth of developments were implemented in Kisnémedi.
Within the framework of the Terület and Settlement Development Operative Program Plusz, an energy investment was realized at the community center and the soup kitchen in the amount of 66 million forints. As part of the development of equipment purchases for local public and civil churches, a streetball court was built at a cost of HUF 8.25 million. The development of local public roads in the outskirts of the Rural Development Program was implemented. The amount of the support was HUF 77 million. In the framework of the Rural Development Program, equipment was purchased in the amount of 2.86 million forints, and in the framework of the Hungarian Village Program, the development of a service apartment was realized in the amount of 39 million forints. As part of the Hungarian Village Program, the terrace of the community center was also built at a cost of HUF 25 million.
As part of the ceremony, the members of the Kisnémedi Faluvédő Egyesület brightened up the program with harvest songs, and then deacon Róbert Kiss blessed the new bread. The celebration was completed by a show by local and guest artists.
(Sowing)
Photo: KesziPress
