2017: János Arany Memorial Year

2017 marks the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian poet János Arany. This year has been declared János Arany Memorial Year by the Hungarian National Assembly and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS). Patron of the memorial year is László Lovász, President of HAS.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences set up the so-called János Arany Memorial Committee, the task of which is to organize scientific events and to follow up and inform the general public about various memorial events.

János Arany Memorial Year will start in Nagyszalonta on March 2, 2017, and the next event will be a scientific session to be held at the general meeting of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Major ceremonial events will be held in Debrecen, Nagykőrös and then again in Budapest. An exhibition will be opened, among others, in Nagyszalonta, Nagykőrös, in Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest, in the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in National Széchényi Library. During the memorial year, new volumes of the recently launched major critical edition entitled Arany János munkái (The Complete Works of János Arany) will be published. In addition to scientific programs, National Széchényi Library will organize a national and cross-border reciting competition for secondary school pupils, and other cultural events will also be organized.

János Arany Memorial Committee can be contacted at the following e-mail address: bicentenarium@gmail.com. The committee is based at HAS Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute for Literary Studies (11-13 Ménesi Street, H-1118 Budapest). News items on events related to János Arany Memorial Year are welcome at the above e-mail address. They will be published on a website featuring manuscripts and major editions of poems by János Arany.