The Székely Freedom Day (, ; ) is a day celebrated by the Székely Hungarian minority of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. It is celebrated every 10 March in

Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; ; German language, German: ''Neumarkt am Mieresch'') is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the list of cities and towns in Romania, 16th-largest city in Romania, with 116,033 ...

, but also in other parts of

Székely Land The Székely Land or Szeklerland (, , Old Hungarian script, Székely runes: 𐲥𐳋𐳓𐳉𐳗𐳌𐳞𐳖𐳇; and sometimes ; ; ) is a historic and ethnographic area in present-day Romania, inhabited mainly by Székelys, a subgroup of Hung ...

and internationally. The holiday was created according to a decision of the

Szekler National Council The Szekler National Council (, ; , ) is a NGO civic organization representing the Székelys of Romania. The organisation serves as a platform to promote Szekler autonomy. History The Council was founded on October 16, 2003. Its first presid ...

on 6 January 2012. The same council said that this day (10 March) was chosen to commemorate the execution of Mihály Gálffy, Károly Horváth and János Török in 1854 at Târgu Mureș. They were Székely

revolutionaries A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

who, after the defeat in 1848, reorganized in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

but were later caught and executed by the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

's authorities. There have been complaints as, on this day, there are often protests for the autonomy of the Székelys, which have caused conflicts between the protesters and the Romanian authorities. In addition, the holiday has been attended earlier as well by Hungarian far-right parties and groups such as

Jobbik The Jobbik – Movement for a Better Hungary (, ), commonly known as Jobbik (), and previously known as Conservatives () between 2023 and 2024, is a Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Hungary, political party in Hungary. Ori ...

and the Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement. Protests for the autonomy of the Székelys have also occurred in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

as a sign of support. In 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, events related to the Székely Freedom Day suffered restrictions. The same year, a collection of signatures that were to be sent to the

European Citizens' Initiative The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. T ...

was carried out. This was done mainly with the intention that the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU) would provide support to the Hungarian regional communities in Romania.

References

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Day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

Annual events in Romania Winter in Romania Observances in Romania March observances 2012 establishments in Romania

See also

References