Hungarian Humanism

How does humanism reveal itself in Hungarian history and civilization?

Hungarians have always been known for their thirst for knowledge: an important humanistic attribute. Their attitude towards foreign cultures has always been that of sympathetic curiosity: they accepted their inspiration and adapted them to their own tastes.

The proverbial Hungarian hospitality is akin to this cultural curiosity. They are probably the only western nation, which truly loves foreigners and treats them with the old– fashioned respect only found among more primitive Asian tribes. It is respect for foreigners was codified by the founder of Christian Hungary, King St. Stephen, who admonished his son to welcome foreigners ” . . . because the nation of one language is weak . . .” He and his successors welcomed immigrants of all nationalities, including pagan refugees fleeing from the Mongol invasion, Jews fleeing from German pogroms (medieval and modern), Slavs and Vlachs escaping from Turkish domination, Poles escaping from Russian and German invaders etc.

Hungarian statesmen frequently fell prey to the intrigues and machinations of international diplomacy. Though efficient organizers in military and political matters, their naive faith in human goodness and credulous innocence left them defenseless against the wily methods of their Machiavellian opponents. Their vitality, optimism and flexibility assured their survival, but their guileless diplomacy always prevented them from playing an important role in Europe. The outspoken Magyar writer, Dezsö Szabó once said: “We Hungarians have been the greatest suckers in the world”.

Softhearted humanism is well illustrated by the Hungarian behavior in wars. Hungarians are incapable of using guerilla tactics, kill unsuspecting or trapped enemies. (Hungary is probably the only. country in Europe which produced no effective armed ‘Resistance” during World War II). They cannot use terror methods, retaliations against civilians and other inhuman methods of warfare. The lower half of the Hungarian Crown was given to the Hungarian King by a Greek emperor, because the Magyar troops had treated their Greek prisoners humanely.

The social structure of the nation has also been based on humanitarian principles. Being human, it was of course, characterized by fragmentation into classes, though not “feudal’ in the western sense of the term, but it possessed a great degree of vertical mobility. Promotion from the lower class to the higher was denied to no one. Peasants of Magyar or other nationality often rose to the highest offices.

Folk music, art and folklore present remarkably humanistic characteristics. The Magyar folk poet is a down-to-earth realist: His imagination is tinged with earthly colors. Flowers, trees, domestic animals, the sky, the rivers and his crops interpret his basic emotions. His beloved is a ‘turtle dove’ and when he is separated from her, he envies the birds that are free to fly to their mates. When he leaves his village, nature itself weeps with him; the dust of the road spins his protective cloak and the stars pity his sorrow. His religion is anthropomorphic: the Child Jesus is the little prince of the shepherds, the Holy Virgin is the mother of all Magyars. The Saviour (’if only He had been born in Hungary”) and Saint Peter visit the Great Plain and talk to the outlaws there. Death holds no terror for him, it is nature’s destiny: the crop dies when ripe. He believes in immortality and resurrection – but he would prefer to be awakened by his girl’s kisses instead of the archangel’s trumpet. He is no mystic: secrets of the afterlife do not interest him. At any rate, Heaven cannot be as beautiful as Hungary, so there is no hurry to get there…

Religion also seems to offer many examples of Hungarian humanism. Among the 40 Hungarians canonized by the Catholic Church (and one canonized by the Buddhist faith) there are no mystics: they were all practical men and women, martyrs, Fighting priests, soldiers, kings, and hard-working women. Even Princess Margaret chose the lowly tasks of a scullery maid in a convent as her sacrifice for Hungary’s liberation from the Mongols in the XVIIIth century – in an age when mysticism and prayer seemed to be the straightest way to Heaven.

<em>- by ZOLTÁN BODOLAI Dip.Ed., Ph.D. (Budapest)
tutor of hungarian History and Culture, University of Sidney</em>

folklore, hospitality, humanism, religion, values