Himnuszaink
Our Anthems

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this study is to present Hungarian anthems during more than 1,000-year-old written history of Hungarians, without literary and historical intentions. Our royal and religious anthems appeared after the years of the conquest, and these anthems glorify the most prominent male and female representatives of the Árpád House in Latin. The kings of the later royal houses were not glorified with anthems, even if they were as significant as Lajos Anjou Nagy, or Matthias Corvin. With the advent of the Reformation, the Hungarian people used three anthems. The Catholic Hungarians, Our Lady is our Mother, the Lutheran Hungarians, the Psalm XLVI, God is our refuge and strength, and Calvinist Hungarians, XC Psalm, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. All three anthems are folk anthems, but also religious anthems. With the displacement of the Turkish Empire from the territories of the historical Hungary, the Hungarian people became under the influence of the Habsburg House. Francis II Rákóczi succeeded mobilizing a significant part of the country’s population, regardless of religious affiliation, in a war of freedom. The War of Independence failed. The Hungarian people sad songs were singing, and under these circumstances the Rákóczi’s song was born. The Rákóczi song is also one of the folk anthems. In the Habsburg Empire, between 1826 and 1918, the Imperial Anthem / Kaiserhymne was official. So in Hungary too, however, the Hungarian-speaking population of the country has ignored this anthem. Until the birth of the Kölcsey-Erkel Hymn, the Hungarian nation had no unified anthem. The Hungarian people took this anthem for 200 years, but the Hungarian legislation made this anthem again valid by new constitution on January 1, 2012.

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