On Saturday, May 13th, we enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the “Museum’s Café” as we gathered to commemorate one of Hungary’s famous poets, Sándor Petőfi. It was little over 200 years ago that Petőfi was born, and although he died a young man, Petőfi left an imprint on Hungary’s history as well as on its literary treasure chest. Many stars had to align to make this Hungarian language program a success, but align they did!!
Our “Museum café” sprung up overnight, with small tables and longer ones decorated with flowers and surrounded by tables of wonderful savory and sweet snacks and coffee that were consumed during our program.
A heartfelt “köszönjük” and “Thank you” goes out to Rev. Éva Tamásy for a most inspiring and fascinating presentation on the spiritual life of Petőfi. She described events in Petőfi’s life and the influence his Lutheran faith had on his poetry. It’s quite likely that many of our guests heard these details for the first time that afternoon. She used Petőfi’s poem “Az Apostol” to demonstrate some of the Christian themes that ran through Petőfi’s life and poetry.
To say that there were some emotional moments when we got around to sharing some of Petőfi poems that we are fond of would be an understatement. There were some wonderful revealing moments! We listened to Nick Szentkirályi dramatically read a compelling poem and then our hostess Erzsébet Lakatos shared more than one poem because many people asked her to read the one they had chosen because her delivery was so beautiful. Many of us grew emotional with Elizabeth Papp Taylor as she read “Füstbement terv”, a short and revered poem about Petőfi’s mother; for many of us this poem was a meaningful walk down memory lane with our own mothers on this Mother’s Day weekend. When Loránd Csibi brought in the Petőfi posters, who knew that his wife would deliver such a marvelous recitation of “Arany Lacinak”? And for many of our guests, the poems they chose to share with us had sentimental value in their lives, and their heartfelt delivery was the proof!
It was a wonderful afternoon …we sat at the Cafe tables and had wonderful food and listened to each other in the intimate surroundings of the Museum. Kuni Nádas, one of our Program Committee members, reminded us that the Surgeon General recently commented that there is an epidemic of loneliness in our society and that people need to socialize. Well, that’s just what we did on this May afternoon!!
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