Blog About Random Country #3 Hungary
Last updated: Monday June 21st, 2021
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Origin of the Name
The "H" in the name of Hungary (and Latin Hungaria) is most likely due to founded historical associations with the Huns, who had settled Hungary prior to the Avars. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Byzantine Greek Oungroi (Οὔγγροι). The Greek name was borrowed from Old Bulgarian ągrinŭ, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur ('ten [tribes of the] Ogurs'). Onogur was the collective name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars.
Flag
The flag of Hungary is a horizontal tricolour of red, white and green. In this exact form, it has been the official flag of Hungary since 23 May 1957. Folklore of the romantic period attributed the colours to virtues: red for strength, white for faithfulness and green for hope. Alternatively, red for the blood spilled for the fatherland, white for freedom and green for the land, for the pastures of Hungary.
Political Geography
Hungary is a landlocked country in East-Central Europe. It has 7 borders, shared with Austria to the west, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia to the south and southwest, Romania to the southeast, Ukraine to the northeast, and Slovakia to the north. It has an area about 93,030 km2 (or 35,920 mi2) and population over 9,7 million. Hungary is divided into 19 counties and one capital. Hungary’s capital and most populous city is Budapest. The second one is Debrecen. Some other big cities are Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr.
Physical Geography
Hungary has some long rivers like Danube, Tisza etc. Largest lake of the country is Lake Balaton with 600 km2 (or 230 sq mi) surface area. Hungary’s highest mountain is Kékes at 1,014 meter (or 3,327 ft) elevation.
History
The origins of the Hungarian people are thought to be nomadic nomadic communities in the middle of Eurasia until the 9th century. The Hungarians, which are supposed to be formed from the union of four tribes named Ugor, Onogur, Huns and Kavar, are a Christian civilization. During the French Revolution, Germanization work was applied on the Hungarian lands, where the Ottoman Empire dominated different periods and regions for about 150 years. In the country, which existed as the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a period, this unity deteriorated with the First World War. In the country, which suffered great losses in the Stalingrad War during the Second World War, Jewish exiles were carried out with the support of the Nazis. In the country, which adopted the post-war communist regime, a constitution modeled on the constitution of the Soviet Union was adopted in 1849. Adopting a more liberal and pluralist democracy model with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Hungary became a member of the European Union in 2004.
Religion and Ethnic Groups
%62 of Hungarians are Catholic Christian. %5 are Protestant and %8 are other Christians.%20 are Irreligious, %1 are Jewish. %2 of people believe another religion. If we have a look at ethnic groups, %94 of the population are Hungarian, %3 Romani, %2 German and the rest of the population belong to different ethnic groups.
Languages
Hungarian is the official and predominant spoken language in Hungary. There are several recognised minority languages in Hungary such as Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Greek, Romanian, Romani, Rusyn, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian.
Cuisine
Traditional Hungarian dishes are primarily based on meats, seasonal vegetables, fruits, bread, dairy products and cheeses. Here are some delicious Hungarian dishes:
Rakott Krumpli: A potato casserole made with some combination of eggs, paprika, spicy sausage, thick bacon (szalonna), quark cheese (túró), onions, sour cream or breadcrumbs.
Halászlé: Famous hot and spicy fish soup with hot paprika. It is always made with the locally available freshwater fish selection (wider selection used, better the taste).
Fun Facts!
1) Hungarians have their own cowboys. They are called ‘csikós’ in Hungarian.
2) Hungarian Parliament is the 3rd largest parliament building in the world. It is also the largest building in Hungary.
3) Budapest was almost named Pestbuda.
4) Budapest has the highest number of thermal springs in the world.
5) Budapest is home of the largest synagogue in Europe, and the second largest one in the world.
6) You can see the hand of the first Hungarian king in a church.
7) Hungarian Alphabet has 44 letters.
Closing
Special thanks to Ethaboo444 and ChineseChen because they included this blog in their The Blog Games Season 1: Week 5 blog. Also thank you for reading my blog and you can read other blogs in this series. See you in next blog!
Hungary suffered from severe hyperinflation after the Second World War. With an inflation of 150,000% a day, the pengő could no longer cope and the government created the thousand-pengő, which was worth one million units of the old currency. Then they did the b-pengő, which was worth a billion pengő... until they got to the 100 million b-pengő bill, which was basically 100 million billion or 100 quintillion pengő, which was worth little. This madness lasted between 1945 and 1946, when the pengő was exchanged for the Hungarian forint, currency that the country still uses today. To give you an idea, a hungarian forint was worth 400 octillion of pengo (4 × 1029, a 4 with 29 zeros behind), at the time of the exchange.