Society of the Friends of Old Hungarian Culture (ÓMT)

What's the occupation of the ÓMT?

 What's its primer target?

        The Society of Old Hungarian Culture of Friends was established in the College of Trade and Catering 20 years ago in 1986. This Society is called with the abbreviation OMT. We hoped that hearing the name of this Society people would recognize that there was old Hungarian Culture which was worth to know. This Culture is our heritage and we must treat it.

        The activities of the Society include non-fiction education, discovery and promotion of the medieval memories of Hungary and our neighbouring countries, and discovery and treatment our heritages. The primer target of our activities is to enrich the present with the experiences of past keeping in mind and at the same time, modernize them.

        To solve the problems of the present and preparing for the future it is supported  both by the experiences of the past and by those of the former generations, by the results of  society and those of  science research work, as well as based on foreign knowledge and methods.

        We experienced that collecting the traditions, specialities (gastronomy, food, ingredients) of our nation and later use of them can serve the development as much as the implementation of new technologies and international experiences can do.

        We are convinced, that studying our culture and our traditional values will help us to answer lots of today's questions: Who we are? Where are we from? Where we belong to and why we belong especially to Western, Eastern or Middle Europe?  Are our stereotypes valid? How could we improve our self-confidence with the help of the experience of our forefathers? We have hoped that we could solve the problems of the origin, identity and corporate identity.

        OMT saved its independency from political parties and daily political activities. It is a national organisation.  The members of the Society come from various fields of the life: there are experts, historians - academics, economists, teachers, house-painters among us. The common interest in the Hungarians is the cement of the Society. We work together on discovering, introducing and discussing topics like for example: the question of the double conquest; the memories and the opportunities of the recent use of the runic writings;  the importance of Sigismund of Luxemburg; the role of the monastic orders; the myth of the nations living together with the Hungarians and the myth of "Hungary washed by three seas"; the situation of the Hungarian-speaking native of Moldavia and how to support their survival; the opportunities of the development sand operations of the Hungarian economic and cultural institutions across the borders.

Our aims are the same from the beginning:

1. To make the present better with the past experiences and assist in developing the future.

2. To improve the consciousness and the ideology of our nation without any romantic dreaming.

3. To let the history of the Hungarians know as complete and reliable as possible and transmit our culture and traditions to the future generations.

4. To modernize our memories and specialities.

5. To care and strengthen the sense of our "Hungarus" community.
   (In the centuries after the medieval Hungarian state has broken, we forgot this slowly. As our nation is shorter and shorter we need to improve our Hungarian sense more than ever.)
   Representing these thoughts OMT runs wide variety of activities including presentations, brochures, exhibitions, education). Mr Kálmán Benda, the former chair of the organisation - died in 1994 - had a leading and irreplaceable role in all of these activities.