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St Stephen's Day Lake Balaton and The Fire Works

The biggest celebration here is not Christmas or Easter, its St. Stephen's day. Their St. Stephen's Day, which is 20 August.

So some friends and I rented a van to go to Siofok Beach on Lake Balaton. The night before the transfer company called and said the pickup point would have to be chnaged as they had replaced the van with a bus. There is 12 of us and they are sending a 30 person bus at no extra charge. That was nice.

We left a 8:10 and arrived at Balaton at 9:45 more or less. Not much traffic. This should have been a very busy day but the weather didnt look promising and I suspect a lot of people decided to stay home. When we arrived we were told the water was too rough for swimming. Entry fee 2.500 forints each. Cloudy, nice breeze, and we found a comfortable place under some trees to prepare eat, drink and catch up. By noon the weather cleared and the water was open and the group played until 3pm when we headed home to clean up and see the fireworks.

The bus for 12 really didnt cost much more than 12 train tickets and made the trip special.

I once read that among the best fireworks displays in the world was Sydnery Harbor at New Year. So I went. Its a hard call on which does a better display, Sydnen or Budapest. Budapest was larger by far, but Sydney was s bit more organized. Budapest also incorporated a lazer light show over the river and some pretty interesting light patterns in the sky facilitated by computer controlled drones with lighs on them. Pretty impressive actually. https://youtu.be/SS62GxfHrLY?si=Ijl1oB55YmSN2bUn

Again the weather worked against us a bit and they delayed the show until 10pm (about an hour). But well worth the wait.

This is a good date to be in Budapest. As for the August weather, a high in the day of maybe 32F and 25% humidity. After sunset closer to 26. Actually very comfortable.

Posted by
8187 posts

Very interesting, even if I did a double take when I first read this as the St Stephen better known in the western Church is Stephen the proto martyr, whose feast day is 26 December.

Also interesting that this St Stephen originally had his feast day on 2 September from 1686 until 1969. Outside Hungary it is now on 16 August (the day after his death) rather than 20 August (the day his relics were translated or moved from modern day Germany) as in Hungary.

Interestingly St Stephen of Hungary also has a second feast day on 30 May- the day of his Holy Dexter- marking the day his right hand was found in the year 1084 (in modern Romania), having previously been stolen. And how that right hand has moved around over the years, to it's current home at St Stephen's Basilica, Budapest.

A long and very interesting entry in my Dictionary of Saints

Posted by
604 posts

That’s interesting that there was no swimming at Balaton at first. We’re the waves that strong? I did like the fireworks as well, lots of people attended.

Posted by
20555 posts

I was surprised, looked like a choppy sea. But settled down pretty fast. Very nice day. It was sort of like an office party, so lots of food, drink, play.