The Eucharistic Congress of 1938 in retrospective

After 1938 our country will organise an International Eucharistic Congress again in 2020. From the newsreels of the 1930’s we know that this colossal event required tremendous amount of preparatory work.

According to reports the organisers printed several hundred thousand of posters and other propaganda material in order to promote the Congress all over the world. Through the division of foreign relations, they kept connection with all five continents, and operated a press office, too. The latter one provided news for eight thousand foreign papers on a daily basis – every day in a different language. The accommodation of the participants also meant a huge task for the organizers: in the housing office they worked hard to allocate the guests to the rooms offered by the gracious residents of the capital.

It was an enormous task to prepare the huge grandstand and altar for the Heroes’ Square, where the triumph of the Eucharist marched along. To manage the immense crowd, the organisers had to solve a lot of problems also regarding transportation and alimentation.

The Congress was held with stupendous colourfulness between 25-29 May 1938. The delegates and the guests arrived from 33 different countries, so more than 50 thousand foreigners participated on the event. The number of the Hungarian participants was close to half million in certain programs. These events were made real memorable for both believers and non-believers by processions of tens of thousands, night-adorations, masses attended by half million people, the beautiful floodlights of Budapest and the huge and colourfully dressed crowd of attendants.

Source & photo: Fortepan