Budapest: St. Stephen’s Day 2021

Hungary’s August 20 Birthday Party

Hungary’s very first king, King Saint Stephen (Szent István Király), his birth name was Vajk, he received the Christian name Stephen during his baptism. Stephen was crowned either on 25 December in the year 1000 or 1 January 1001, according to different traditions, and established the Kingdom of Hungary. New battles were fought against tribes and chieftains who stayed somewhat independent (e.g. his uncle, Gyula the Younger), however, in the end, King Stephen succeeded to convert the Magyars (Hungarians) to Christianity and to unify the Carpathian Basin. He also protected the new-born kingdom from foreign invaders. King Stephen was canonized on August 20th, 1083, by Pope Gregory VII for bringing Christianity to Hungary and later deemed the patron saint of Hungary.

2021 is being called, “Hungary’s ‘Best Ever St Stephen’s Day Celebrations” and the government invited the world to Budapest for the “gigantic fireworks show” called the “Game of Fire and Lights”, which took place at 9:00pm between the Margit and Petőfi bridges. There were more than 40 thousand fireworks exploding from more than 60 barges on the Danube River and additional ground locations over the course of the 34-minute show. The experience will no doubt remain with Hungarians as one of the best, if not the best, firework display of any St Stephen’s Day celebration. It was certainly a short but sweet moment of unified celebration and happiness for everyone, especially celebratory after the difficulties faced in the past year and a half.

For the national holiday on 20 August, most museums honor the Founding of the State with free exhibitions. On this day, the Holy Crown can be visited for free inside the Parliament, and at Buda Castle you could see the newly renovated St Stephen's Hall. In addition there were literally 100’s of programs held throughout the city over the 3.5 days of celebrating.

With an almost full moon rising over the Parliament Building, I positioned myself near Batthyány tér on the Buda side to enjoy the show.

This is my first picture of the night…waiting for the show to begin…

The grand finale for the entire show was the drones that made the crown and then it turned into a cross. My last pic of the night…

Some of the pictures below I was able to snap while walking home after midnight the day before the celebration. so it was officially St. Stephen’s Day. On my way back to Buda, my side of the river, I enjoyed this private show for a party of one. I’ve always liked dress rehearsals...something special about seeing the preparation behind the curtain with no people and crowds.

The first picture (below) is the drones depicting the story of Stephen riding his horse into the Carpathian Basin. From this angle he is riding over the Buda Castle, now The National Gallery. Next is his crown that I took the night of the celebration looking at the Parliament Building, and then in turned into the cross that represents him bringing Christianity to Hungary. During the dress rehearsal I even got to see them bring the drones in for a landing.

Very impressive.