{"id":3849,"date":"2015-08-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/travel-trends\/celebrating-st-stephen-s-day-in-hungary\/"},"modified":"2018-10-05T10:54:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T14:54:52","slug":"celebrating-st-stephen-s-day-in-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/celebrating-st-stephen-s-day-in-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating St Stephen\u2019s Day in Hungary!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Celebrating St Stephen\u2019s Day in Hungary!\" src=\"\/going-places\/wp-content\/uploads\/files\/2015\/8\/shutterstock_259313609.jpg\" alt=\"Celebrating St Stephen\u2019s Day in Hungary!\" width=\"450\" \/><\/div>\n<div>August 20th, St Stephen\u2019s Day,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/visitbudapest.travel\/budapest-events\/st-stephens-day\/\" target=\"_blank\">is the biggest day of the year in Hungary<\/a>. The day commemorates Stephen I, the first King of Hungary, being canonized in 1083 (45 years after his death) by Pope Gregory VII for bringing Christianity to the people of Hungary. The actual feast day for St Stephen is the 16th of August, but it is celebrated on the 20th as that\u2019s the day the king\u2019s relics arrived in Budapest.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The national holiday sees festivals across the country with the most significant national events taking place in the capital city of Budapest. Folks tend to kick things off the night before with a family meal at home. On the morning of the 20th, the Hungarian flag is raised in a ceremony at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/visitbudapest.travel\/guide\/budapest-attractions\/heroes-square\/\" target=\"_blank\">Heroes\u2019 Square<\/a>\u00a0in Budapest. Religious observances include a special mass at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.bazilika.biz\/\" target=\"_blank\">St Stephen\u2019s Basilica<\/a>\u00a0followed by a procession of the king\u2019s relics around the church. The night is alive with concerts and fireworks displays, the biggest being in Budapest where people crowd rooftops, line the banks of Danube River to watch. Another popular way to experience the fireworks is to take to the river itself for a scenic dinner cruise replete with traditional Hungarian cuisine and wine.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This year St Stephen\u2019s Day in Budapest promises to be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/cheap-flights\/budapest-bud-hungary-deals?fpaffiliate=Blog&amp;utm_source=Social_Media&amp;utm_medium=Blog&amp;utm_campaign=homepage\" target=\"_blank\">an excellent time to be in the city<\/a>. A \u201cStreet of Hungarian Flavors\u201d along the Danube embankment in Budea from 10am and running the early evening will offer a taste of some of the country\u2019s most delectable treats. Outdoor concerts will commence from 10am as as well at the city\u2019s iconic Chain Bridge. High Mass at the Basilica begins at 5pm with the procession of the king\u2019s relics starting soon after.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Starting on the day and running through the weekend is a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/visitbudapest.travel\/budapest-events\/festival-of-folk-arts\/\" target=\"_blank\">Festival of Folk Arts<\/a>\u00a0held in Buda Castle. A popular yearly event, the 2015 festival will be the 29th annual Festival of Folk Arts and will run for four days. The theme of 2015 will be \u201cthe life of shepherds\u201d but opportunities will be plentiful to learn about and experience a variety of crafts and traditions, many of which date back to the days of St Stephen or even earlier.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 20th, St Stephen\u2019s Day,\u00a0is the biggest day of the year in Hungary. The day commemorates Stephen I, the first King of Hungary, being canonized in 1083 (45 years after his death) by Pope Gregory VII for bringing Christianity to the people of Hungary. The actual feast day for St Stephen is the 16th of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98896944,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions\/98896944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onetravel.com\/going-places\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}