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| Zsuzsanna Répás |
The meeting gives an opportunity to secondary school students to foster ties with each other, and this is an age group in which people are most open to the world while trying to find their identity, said Répás after the opening event in Gödöllő.
Young people who live in very different circumstances at home will be able to see how the others around them experience their Hungarian national identity; youth from various regions of the Carpathian Basin will spend time with those who live in other diasporic communities around the world, many of whom are third and fourth-generation Hungarians, often with a poor knowledge of the Hungarian language, she said. Yet, they will all try to communicate with each other in Hungarian, she added.
Summer is a period for festivals and camps where many friendships and personal contacts can develop that can be maintained in the long term, now also with the help of the internet, Répás said.
The meeting on August 14-21, the second of its kind, is being attended by some 450 secondary school students from 16 countries. Some of the guests will perform dance and theatre in Gödöllő, Eger and Budapest during their week-long stay in Hungary.
The troupes will appear on stage during the Celebration of Crafts festival in the Buda castle and at the August 20 national holiday celebrations. The visitors will be taken to the Petőfi Literary Museum where they will learn about the life and work of the renowned writer István Örkény. They will also pay a visit to the parliament building and meet Hungarian Olympic champions.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
