15 March may not be our number one state holiday (that title goes, deservedly, to 20 August), but it is probably the dearest to Hungarians, wherever they live. It is the one that encapsulates most poignantly the essential characteristics of our people: a love for freedom, and national unity when we need to fight for it.

This year we commemorate the 176th anniversary of that glorious, rainy day when the revolutionary youth of Pest, joined by many of the good people of Pest and Buda, took to the streets to demand liberty and national sovereignty. Hearing the news of the uprising in Vienna, they felt it was ‘now or never’, as the great poet Sándor Petőfi expressed it in his poem ‘Rise, Hungarian’.

As Viktor Orbán so aptly says in the letter he has sent to the Hungarian diaspora communities on the occasion of the holiday, in 1848

‘the Hungarian nation became the standard-bearer of freedom. The March youth demanded not only a responsible government, the abolition of censorship and equality before the law, but also wished to finally live in a Europe whose nations want to progress together, side by side, and not on each other’s ruins. They were convinced that

freedom is not for its own sake and is certainly not the freedom of the stronger over the weaker,

of the majority over the minority, but serves first and foremost to generate peace, security and prosperity for all.’

Hungarian Conservative marks this beautiful day of Hungarian history with three articles. The first looks at the origin and usage of the tricolour cockade, traditionally worn on 15 March as a symbol of national pride. The second presents the unique photographic portraits from the 1890s and 1902 of former 1848 soldiers. It is incredibly moving to look at the pictures of these elderly men, mostly of humble origins, immortalized thanks to photographer József Plohn whose works have been preserved in the collection of the János Tornyai Museum of Hódmezővásárhely. And finally, we share a review of the monumental, historical epic film titled Now or Never, released in Hungarian cinemas yesterday, 14 March. The film tells the story of 15 March primarily through the exploits of Sándor Petőfi and his fellow revolutionaries on that fateful day.

We wish you good reading, and a wonderful holiday to all who are Hungarian by birth or by choice, here in the motherland and beyond our borders.

Read more about 15 March and the War of Independence: