August 20 fireworks display in Budapest in 2023                                                                                      Photo/hirado.hu/ Peter Gyula Horvath

Speaking in Esztergom, north of Budapest, the president said “St. Stephen has become an integral part of each of us; he is with us”.
Stephen I “laid the foundations for a Christian Hungary and made the country a part of the western world,” she said, adding that at the same time the sainted king “inevitable earned a place in our life, too”.
On August 20, Hungarians pay tribute to Saint Stephen “for his courage, faith, wisdom, and humbleness … he is inside, while he is above us, he is behind, while he is in front of us,” Novak said. She said August 20 was “neither a dusty tradition nor a modern-time party but a holiday … reminding us of our past and giving us renewed hope for the future each year.” On this day we “forget about the negligible and focus on what is really important,” she said.