Szerencs chocolate and Transylvanian chimney cakes could soon become Hungaricums, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas said on Thursday in Budapest when he opened the first Hungaricum Weekend, a culture and gastronomy festival showcasing the treasures of the Hungarian nation.

“Hungaricums are the crowning achievements of the Hungarian peoples. These walls also embody everything that the Hungarian peoples have achieved within the Carpathian Basin”, the Minister declared with reference to the venue of the festival, Buda Castle. The Buda Castle District has been a Hungaricum wince 31 January 2013.

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“The Act on Hungaricums is practically the continuation of the historical works on the deeds of the Hungarians by chroniclers Anonymous and Simon of Kéza, a kind of third volume written by the whole Hungarian nation; by Hungarians living all over the world who have achieved something enduring”, he said.

The number of Hungaricums could soon increase, the Minister announced. Candidates include Szerencs chocolate, Szekler chimney cake, the computer science legacy of János Neumann, the Vizsoly Bible, which was the first full Bible to be published in Hungarian, Lake Hévíz and its traditional medicinal remedies, and preparing Hungarian fish soup.

Let us preserve these treasures, raise them to the rank they deserve and promote them like the Hungaricum Committee does both here at home and abroad at for instance the Sziget Festival, the Bálványos Summer Free University and at a host of other domestic and foreign events and fairs. Value depository committees (charged with collecting suggestions for possible Hungaricums from the public) have already been formed in 346 settlements, he added.

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The best of the 41 national treasures already included in the list of Hungaricums were showcased at a separate stand at the festival, including Csaba and Gyula sausage, Tokaj Aszu, pálinka, soda water, Kalocsa paprika powder, Pick and Herz winter salami, Hungarian acacia honey and Hungarian goose liver products, and in addition to such gastronomic treasures other values such as the Mohács Busójárás and falconry.

Also present with at the festival with a separate stand was Kürt Limited, whose data recovery technology has also been listed as a Hungaricum since January of this year. At the opening ceremony of the festival, an external hard drive containing a photograph of all 41 Hungaricums taken at the event was burnt and subsequently thrown into a tank of water. Kürt Limited undertook to recover the photograph from the damaged hard drive by the closing day of the festival.

(MTI, Ministry of Agriculture)