Magyar Egyház, 2004 (83. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2004-01-01 / 1. szám
10. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ An Epochal Day in Hungarian History March 15,1848 The most dramatic events of March 15 took place in Buda-Pest while Louis Kossuth was in Vienna. The hero was not Kossuth, the main actor in the revolutionary drama, but an uninvited supporting actor in the person of the poet Sándor Petőfi. Sándor Petőfi. The foremost poet in Hungarian. He played an important part in the revolution. Killed in action against the Russians in the battle of Segesvár at age of 26. Among all the literary lights who illuminated Hungary at that time, Petőfi was the youngest and the most brilliant. If the others - including Ferenc Kazinczy, Dániel Berzsenyi, Joseph Katona, the two Kisfaludy brothers who had preceded him and his contemporaries such as Mór Jókai, János Arany. Mihály Tompa and Mihály Vörösmarty - were like stars shining in the Hungarian firmament, Petőfi was a comet shooting across the sky with the radiance of his powerful poetry. Never were his words delivered with more dramatic effect than on March 15, 1848, when they became the overture to revolution. On the morning of March 15, Petőfi and his friend, Mór Jókai, addressed a group of young men who had assembled in the Café Pilvax and who would later become known as the Youth of March (.Márciusi ifjak). Aroused by the clarion calls for the rebirth of the nation, they were ready to start freeing it from its chains. Jókai spoke first. He read a proclamation echoing Kossuth's 12 points, and thunderous applause followed each one. But this was only a prelude to the ecstasy created when Petőfi stepped forward and declaimed his Nemzeti Dal ( National Song): Talpra Magyar, hi a haza! Itt az idő, most vagy soha! Rabok legyünk, vagy szabadok? Ez a kérdés válasszatok! A magyarok Istenére Esküszünk, Esküszünk, hogy rabok tovább Nem leszünk! Magyars, rise, country calls you! Meet this hour, whate 'er befalls you! Shall we freemen be, or slaves! Choose the lot your spirit craves! By Hungary's holy God Do we swear, Do we swear, that servile chains We'll no more bear! Carried away by the passion of the moment, the chanting multitude swarmed to Lederer and Heckenast, the largest printing shop in town, and seized control. There thousands of leaflets containing the twelve demands and Petőfi's ’’National Song” were printed and distributed among the people. By afternoon, Buda-Pest had become a cauldron of patriotic activity and excitement which could not be cooled by the continuous heavy rainfall. ”A good omen,” some said, ’’for it also rained in Paris, in Palermo and in Vienna when the revolutions broke out there.” At first umbrellas could be seen, but they all disappeared when Jókai challenged the crowd: ’’Patriots ! If we are so afraid of being pelted by rain, what will we do to protect ourselves from the hail of bullets that might fly our way in an hour or so?” At 3:00 p.m. Petőfi spoke to some 10.000 demonstrators from the steps of the National Museum and recited his ’’National Song” accompanied by the crowd which now knew it by heart. Then the demonstrators marched to City Hall to have their demands adopted by the City Council. Tricolors were hung from every window to greet the dawn of a new epoch. In the evening the National Theater scheduled a performance of Bánk Bán, a drama by Joseph Katona which had been blacklisted by the government. It was a memorable evening for everyone present. (Stephen Sisa: Spirit of Hungary, page 147.)
