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Today, it is natural for most to fish the Hungarian cockade, which had been carefully packaged a year earlier, on March 15, and place it on the heart side of their dress, in honor of the heroes of the Revolution and the War. of the Independence of 1848-1849. We also point out that the Hungarian cockade is not of domestic origin, so it was not used for the first time on March 15, 1848; its history dates back to an older time.
Around the beginning of the 18th century, it appeared among European symbols mainly as a sign of military supremacy, it was worn on a cape, helmet, pocket and symbolized the ruler, that is, the colors of the ruler, empire or country.
The word originates in French – coq means rooster, cocarde means cockade – and many believe that the cockade itself originated there. But this is not the case.
According to Attila Pandula, president of the Hungarian Society for Heraldry and Genealogy, for example, during the reign of Russian Tsar Peter I the Great, early 1700 Russian soldiers also wore cockades, and then they appeared all over Europe in some form, so III. During the reign of Carlos also here.
Its use was already very common during the Napoleonic wars, so I prefer to say that before, during the French Revolution, the cockade, which had a military character and was linked to some type of violent organization, became known and gave strong political content. .
Attila Pandula told Index.
In the Habsburg Empire, however, red, white, and green were out of the question in the official legal form, so of course the cockade was black and yellow. At the same time, it is worth mentioning that since the late 1700s the flags of the red-white-red coat of arms appeared on ships, while the stern of the ship was decorated with a Hungarian flag. In the reform era, the use of red-white-green became common and, in the early 1830s, the National Assembly officially elevated its use as a national symbol, but at that time no law was enacted in this regard. .
However, in the last feudal parliament of 1847, this was already one of the main themes. In Parliament on January 7, 1848, József Bunjik, Croatian Ambassador, and Pál Kubicza, Trenčín County Ambassador, also spoke about the Hungarian national colors. Finally, article 21 of the laws of April 1848 provided for the first time a Hungarian national flag with horizontal stripes, red, white and green and the country’s coat of arms, which established that
- “The national color and the coat of arms of the country recover their ancient rights.
- Therefore, by re-engraving the tricolor rose as a bourgeois symbol, it is established at the same time that it can be used by all national buildings and public institutions on all public holidays and on all Hungarian ships with the national flag and coat of arms. from the country. arms. “By the way, leaving affiliates free to use their own colors and zimers in addition to the colors and cymbals of the country.”
In the history of Hungarian law and in the history of Hungarian auxiliary sciences, it was the first article of the law that made it possible to use the symbols of nationalities in a remarkable way.
Many people associate the spread of the Hungarian cocktail with Sándor Petőfi and Mór Jókai, who received cocktails from their beloved, Júlia Szendrey and Rózsa Laborfalvi, on March 15.
March 15 was an unsettling day. There is a lot of data in the contemporary press about the use of the cockade. Probably many people know the story that Bánk’s injury was carried out at the National Theater, but the performance did not end because everyone went on stage and began to embrace the actors at the national level, and finally the cockade was raised to all the artists . At the same time, it’s interesting that Petőfi’s cockade isn’t professional either.
– Attila Pandula tells the Index based on his archive, press and museum research, emphasizing that the green color is outside the heraldically professional Hungarian cockade, while the red is inside, not the other way around, as it was in Petőfi and while extended in Hungary, and we still wear it today: it is the Italian cockade. Attila Pandula adds, however, that both versions are acceptable, after all the average person could not have known in 1848, but even today.
Photo: adtplus.arcanum.hu / Zalai Hírlap / 2001-03-14 / No. 62
According to the contemporary press, on March 16 the crowd flooded the entire city, Pest and Buda, and all were decorated with a Hungarian flag and cockade: they wanted to show their nationality as Hungarians.
A source recalls a beautiful story from those days, according to which an Italian pastry chef sold strawberry, vanilla and pistachio ice cream on Váci Street as a “national ice cream”. But others also tried to take advantage of his commercial acumen: also on Váci Street, a merchant sold twelve thousand rosettes and two hundred flags until March 20, with great profit.
Attila Pandula said.
The piece of the cockade was sold by the merchant for 10 cents, but the 12,000 cockades sold are surprising only because in 1848 the total population of Pest, Buda and Óbuda was 151,016, that is, almost one in ten residents sold a cockade. .
However, in the days after March 15, rosettes were popular not only in Buda and Pest, but also in other cities.
- After learning in Csíkszék that movements had taken place in Pest, Ádám Veres, a man from the administration, began handing out cockades.
- News of the events in Pest reached Košice on March 17, by the 18th the entire city was wearing a cockade and waving national flags.
- In Debrecen, one of the most prominent Hungarian cities, everyone placed the cockade on March 20.
- In Cluj-Napoca, on March 21, everyone was already wearing a cockade: the noble ladies of the main square, on the main street, scattered it from a basket among the people.
- In Târgu Mureş, the National Song was recited, while local women handed out cocktails.
In contemporary Hungary, therefore, the events in Pest were well received everywhere, regardless of the ethnic composition of the settlement. Even in Bratislava, the then capital, there was great enthusiasm, although at that time it was a German city, less Hungarian and less Slovak. However, the Hungarian cockade was also placed by everyone present.
And the color red-white-green became a symbol of the revolution, everything they painted was painted, even Lajos Kossuth started a movement, saying that the red-white-green should be tied to the black and yellow ribbons.
However, the war for independence was followed by severe reprisals. Julius Jacob von Haynau, commander of the victorious army, appealed to the population: if you have a national symbol, even a cockade, you live with death.
I didn’t find a record of a death sentence, but I did find people who were shut down and tripped over.
Attila Pandula said.
The wearing of the cockade and the national color was allowed again after 1867 and immediately became extremely popular again, unchanged to this day.
And why are red, white and green the symbols of the Hungarians?
It is one of the oldest national colors in European use, and this can be said without exaggeration. The color red-white-green was originally the color of royal seals, and has been used continuously since the end of the Árpádian era, and was already an astonishing cult during the reign of Maria Teresa.
Attila Pandula said.
(Cover image: Kokárda in the hands of a student from Nyíregyháza on March 13, 2020. Photo:Attila Balázs / MTI)
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