Rejuvenation
The Anthroposophical Society in Hungary is organizing events for young people. More and more of them take place digitally.
After a preparatory phase in 2019, the project ‘The young generation is our future’ started with five former Waldorf school students under the heading MAT Youth Project (MAT stands for Anthroposophical Society in Hungary). Since 1 September 2019, two young co-workers, also former Waldorf school students, have been working in the Budapest office, supported by the Triangulum Foundation. Once a month they meet with the wider project group at the Rudolf Steiner House or in the offices of the Waldorf association.
Waldorf events
In December 2019 a dialogue took place with parents of the Solymár Waldorf School near Budapest on the question ‘What is Waldorf?’ In January 2020, the first major event – Waldorf Educatio 2020 – was held, which focused on career choices and prospects. 120 people – most of them Waldorf students – attended the lectures, work groups and the concluding concert. In February, a second What is Waldorf? dialogue followed for parents of the Vác Waldorf School, where they shared their views on anthroposophy and Steiner schools with Waldorf alumni and council members of the Anthroposophical Society in Hungary.
With news of a pandemic, the fear of in-person meetings grew. An event we had planned – Threefolding and Direct Democracy – could take place just before the lockdown, but many of those who had registered did not attend. On 15 March tighter restrictions were put into place, cultural events cancelled and the hospitality sector with the exception of essential food shops shut down. Our activities also came to a standstill.
The project group continued its work via video conferences and looked for ways and means for keeping up their activities. We brought our plans forward to set up a website with recorded lectures on anthroposophy and Steiner Education, working together with another group of Waldorf alumni.
Once the lockdown came to an end we offered in-person events again, but people had become fearful and only very few had the courage to attend. The first event planned for after the lockdown, the Waldorf Festival in September, for which 200 tickets had been sold, had only around 80 attendees. The Michaelmas Festival on 27 September also had fewer participants than expected. It offered a whole-day programme on a boat on the Danube, opposite the Parliament buildings, under the title A világba nézek én (I look into the world).
Mobile planning
The second lockdown brought all our plans to a standstill again but not our will to go on. Since then we have organized all our events without an audience, filming them and/or making them available online. We have set up a YouTube channel for this and a Facebook account for direct broadcasting. The first broadcast, in early October 2020, was called A közösség ereje (the power of the community). Later, we set up a studio at Rudolf Steiner House, from where we broadcast four advent programmes with concerts and one on Three-Kings-Day.
At the end of January Waldorf Educatio 2021 took place, for the first time as a video meeting. For February we are planning two more programmes in connection with Rudolf Steiner’s 160th birthday.
In addition, we are planning to found a youth group within the Anthroposophical Society in Hungary this year – with members who are active within the organization.