Ceremonial Swords Handed Over In Orczy-kert

The purpose of the Hundred Day celebrations is to strengthen the spirit of comradeship. Although so far the celebration of military graduates was held in the university, but as of this year the event has been moved to the Mária Ludovika memorial in Orczy-kert (garden). The celebration has a long history, the tradition began in the 18th century, in the era of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The ceremony took place a hundred days before commissioning in the officer training institutions of the period (Bécsújhely/Wiener Neustadt, Mödling, Ludovika), in 1924 in the Royal Hungarian Military Ludovika Academy of Military Science, and in 1939 in Royal Hungarian Bolyai János Academy of Military Engineering.

In 1927, the graduates of 1917 offered a ceremonial sword to the commander of the Academy to be awarded to the most excellent graduate student every year. The initiative was put and end to in World War II, and later Hungarian officers living abroad put forward a proposal to restore the tradition.

In 1922, off-duty mountain rifleman Lieutenant János Pénzes donated a memorial sword to Kossuth Lajos Military College and Bolyai János College of Military Engineering (in the name of the fraternity of officers who had graduated from the Royal Hungarian Ludovika Academy of Military Science and lived in Melbourne).

At the event on May 15, 2009, General (Eng.) László Tömböl, Chief of the Defence Staff of the Ministry of Defence, Brigadier General (ret.) Dr. János Szabó, Rector of Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence, and Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Kornél Martin were also received by the graduates.

Following the entry of the colours, the national anthem (Himnusz) was played by MH Központi Zenekar, the orchestra of the Hungarian Defence Forces, and the ceremonial swords and daggers were handed over to the graduates achieving the best results. Kossuth Sword was awarded to student Ede Énekes, Bolyai Sword to student Balázs Pallagh, and Bolyai Ceremonial Dagger, awarded to the best female student, was handed over to Boglárka Szél, while the Aviation Dagger of Szolnok was awarded to Viktor Sworcz.

After the reception of the colours, the flag of the Student Battalion was handed over to the representatives of the third year, and the students laid a wreath on the Mária Ludovika memorial.

There were a numer of other programs for the audience: the contest of marching tunes was preceded by the display of three versions of the new dress uniform for students, inspected by Gen. László Tömböl, among others. The first version recalls the period of the 1848 revolution and fight for freedom, the second design resembles the uniforms of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and the third one is similar to the uniforms of the twenties and thirties. The final version will be selected at a later date and the design that is the most popular with the students will be sent to the defence minister.

There was a military hand-to-hand combat demonstration for the audience, and in the arms display tent one could get in direct contact with the equipments, in the Air Soft tent they could practice aiming, and there were archive films and photographs of several military events in the Military History tent – from the beginning to recent days.

Heroes’ Corridor in Ludovika building was open for everyone during the event.