Paul Gelencse1r writes, in a mild manner befitting a Christian holiday:
> Where the hell do you get off trivializing a holiday that is a part of
> the dominant religion of Hungary!!
Hungary has no dominant religion. It's a secular state, unlikely to
become dominated by religion of any sort.
> By mentioning Passover in the
> contect you have, are you implying that Judaism is somehow more
> fundemental to the Culture and history of Hungary than Christianisty?
I doubt it as far as culture is concerned -- as far as history is
concerned only secular holidays, such as March 15th, seem to have any
significance. But this is completely irrelevant to Paul Ne1vai's point,
which remains true even if 99.9% of Hungarians care for Easter -- there
still will be some who don't.
> Jew may be welcome to Hungary as late comers
At least one school of history implies that Hungarian-Jewish coexistence
goes back to a time previous to the Hungarians' arrival to the Carpathian
Basin. The humorous version of this theory holds that Hungarian Jews were
waiting for A1rpa1d at Verecke, "kacaga1nyt e1s buzoga1nyt a1rultak". This
"late comer" business is meaningful only as an attempt on your part to be
offensive, otherwise no legal or ethical claim can possibly be based on what
happened or didn't happen a thousand year ago.
> Jews are not Magyars let us not forget, though they are Hungarians
And what, pray tell, does this mean? Let's try to translate it into
Hungarian: "Ne feledju2k hogy a zsido1k nem magyarok, ba1r magyarok".
> - but attempts at re-writing
> history falsely are the surest way to create a conflict between people,
> and for sure the surest way to get a response from me!
Nobody's rewriting anybody's history. While I don't agree with Paul Ne1vai
on the main point (I am perfectly able to receive Easter greetings in the
good spirit it was offered), you seem to be attacking his position from a
completely irrelevant angle. So let me quote something (see the Hungarian
original in yesterday's SZALON):
"The age of nationalisms is over. Though nationalism might contain many
important values, nobody has a right to push back the sons of another
nation, to take away their particular characterists and values. An early
definition of the church is that it is a sign raised above the nations. God
calls people from every nation. If we, Christians, could approach each other
in this spirit, rather than nationalist thinking being definitive, we could
contribute to the peace of this region enormously. There are historical
examples, since the sickly, nationalist thinking is the result of the wars
and unfortunate peace treaties of the 19th and 20th centuries, and of
political ideologies. This wasn't always like that. A large number of
Slovaks fought in the Hungarian fight for freedom [1848-49]...."
(From an interview with Asztrik Va1rszegi, abbot of the Pannonhalma
monastery.)
If you must indulge in sickly, nationalist thinking (beteges, nacionalista
gondolkoda1s) why don't you do it in private e-mail and spare other
Hungarians the embarrassment.
Andra1s Kornai
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* 3:00 PM 04/30/95 RECITAL
****************************************
Recital by pianists Balazs Reti (Budapest) and Laszlo Kenez (Budapest)
in the Great Hall of the International Student House
1825 R Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
Pieces by :
Reti
Liszt
Bartok
Haydn
Chopin
Schubert/Liszt
Debussy
RSVP before April 28.
(202) 387-6445
(a $5 contribution will be appreciated)
organizers:
The Embassy of the Republic of Hungary and
The International Student House
Tea is served following the performance.
> =========================================================
For this and other programs see my WWW homepage !
--
WWW : http://www.glue.umd.edu/~gotthard
personal email : 
local mailing list : 
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