Under the organization of the United Hungarian Societies and its members, the Cleveland Hungarian community remembered the events of the 1848 revolution at the First Hungarian Reformed Church’s great hall on Sunday, March 13, 2016. The program was gracefully led by church member Rahel Krasznai. The singing of the American and Hungarian national anthems by those gathered was accompanied by Marton Tamasy on the piano followed by an opening prayer from the church’s Rev. Dr. Csaba Krasznai.
The program continued with opening remarks and greetings from the leader of Hungary’s Consulate General office in Chicago, Dr. Adam Markusfalvi-Toth. He was followed by Laszlo Bojtos, Hungary’s Honorary Consul General in Cleveland, who read Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s remarks about the events of 1848. The West Side Hungarian Lutheran Church’s Little Hungarian Choir presented songs for the occasion, the First Hungarian Reformed Church’s Hungarian School older students performed a stage play followed by the younger students’ poetry recitals, and the scouts from Hungarian Scout Troop 14 dramatized a recruiting of soldiers’ scene through dance.
The keynote speaker for the afternoon was Kelemen Mikes Program intern Gergely Bodok from Hungary. The Cleveland Hungarian School’s 6th grade student Emilia Payne’s recital of Sandor Petofi’s poem “National Song – Rise Up Magyar!”, a closing prayer by Rev. Sandor Kulcsar of the Cleveland Hungarian Bethany Baptist Church, and the singing of the Szekler Anthem concluded the commemoration. A social gathering with pastries and coffee completed the afternoon’s event.
