If our communities are successful, then the nation is also successful - declared the President of the Republic Tamás Sulyok in his Christmas speech on public media channels on Thursday evening, in which he called the Hungarians' stand for peace exemplary and wished for a healthier, more peaceful nation by 2025.
The head of state said that in the past period it has become customary for the president of the republic to formulate his message to the nation on the first day of the year, however, slightly reshaping the usual tradition, he speaks to Hungarians "not in the cheerful intoxication of the beginning of the year, but in the intimate joy of Christmas."
He called Christmas the time of the year when those people who are otherwise not so receptive to this during the rest of the year seek community with others. The head of state emphasized that holidays play a significant and beautiful role in the self-definition of families, communities, and the nation, they have a special place in our lives, in the formation and maintenance of our identity, and also in keeping community consciousness alive and well.
Christmas also strengthens generational bonds, he said.
With the old stories told and recalled at this time, and with the photographs taken from the treasured memory boxes, we recall our ancestors, and we reach the holiday by inner paths. Thus assuring the young generation that the family was, is and will be, it exists in the past, in the present and in the future, Tamás Sulyok stated.
The President of the Republic pointed out that it is not only family, relatives or friends that bind people together. Every nation is also a "community-based unit", he emphasized.
We, Hungarians, connect to each other in such a way that we are also part of one or more communities in which we "accompany each other from birth to death". These are the basic units that make up the nation, from which building ideas, forward-looking plans, decisive actions and good responses to the challenges of the ages are born, from which the Hungarian future has arisen from generation to generation, said the head of state.
He drew attention to the fact that nowadays our communities seem to be fading and weakening. Today's trials - or, on the contrary, its comforts - begin with human relationships. The economic difficulty leads to isolation, the lack of peace leads to seclusion, and with the opportunities provided by technological development - if we use them badly - we can easily exclude ourselves from the reality of life, he explained.
Today, people can also find the prerequisites for not needing others, for not having to rely on others. But can he be a keeper then? he asked the question.
According to Tamás Sulyok, we still have a huge need for sustaining, inspiring and encouraging communities, because we can only live by strengthening each other and get from one to the other.
One of the biggest challenges was the preservation of physical and mental health, especially against the health-damaging and soul-destroying effects of lifestyle and modern living conditions. In order to maintain them, we need a sustaining, helping and supportive community, our fellow human beings, he stated.
The President of the Republic also spoke about the fact that we have been facing security threats for years due to war conflicts. Even with peace, we can only stand together and in unity for all of us, including the Hungarian communities in Transcarpathia, which have to live their third Christmas without peace, he emphasized.
Although the Hungarians can only be factors equal to their own weight in global processes, the decisiveness they show in the issue of peace is still important and an example for other nations, he indicated.
He put it this way: "if we are promoting external peace, then we must also pay attention to the internal peace of our nation, we cannot allow them to divide us or play us against each other for any reason".
We should never see each other, the other Hungarians, as enemies - stressed Tamás Sulyok, who believes that a healthier and more peaceful nation could be the goal by 2025.
The head of state also spoke about how the success of a nation can be measured not only in economic or political results, but also in how strong its communities are, to what extent its members are able to stick together and help each other.
The most effective weapon for our national survival is staying in the community, he declared. He added: for this we need to protect the communities we have already built, and where they do not exist or have withered away, we need to create new ones.
Tamás Sulyok emphasized: if our communities are successful, the nation is also successful. Our unity presupposes an active national community, not coexistence, but coexistence, and this must prevail despite all the differences between us, he said.
We can be heroes and freedom-lovers, or creative and inventive, we can work hard and create great things, as centuries of testimony about the Hungarians show, but individually, separated from each other, we don't get very far - he noted, adding that all struggle and effort is only "the valid in relation to another".
He quoted Attila József, who wrote: "even if you bathe in yourself, you can only wash your face in someone else".
The President of the Republic emphasized: in the challenges facing Hungary, in the tests of our nation, it is necessary to relearn the practice of belonging to each other, and this is not a question of generational, political, economic, opinion or value differences.
"If we hold the other close, he also holds us", and then we progress better, we can do greater things, we can live a better life, he said.
Regardless of any differences, let's count each other into our lives - the President of the Republic wished, ending his speech by saying that God bless Hungary, our Hungarian communities and all Hungarians.
MTI
Cover photo: President Tamás Sulyok
Source: Facebook/Tamás Sulyok
