Debrecen, the city of flowers and its amazing Flower Carnival.

Debrecen is the second-largest city of Hungary, it is situated in the east part of the nation in the region of Hajdù-Bihar, at 50km from the border with Romania. 
This city is indeed very green, it has not only numerous parks but also a very big forest (called by the locals the “Great Forest”) as part of the city itself as many green areas -better explained in another article of mine-.
Not only the citizens love the green that you can find around the city they also love flowers, in fact in  the city center is possible to admire numerous and various flower beds always kept in the best of shapes by workers that cyclically change the flowers to have them as beautiful as possible. Every morning in the new square of the city is also possible to go buy some plants at the flower market that colors the square every day from 8 to 12 a.m., a lot of windows and balconies have colorful and beautiful plants, and the people just love to watch them every day. 
It is not surprising, then, that one of the biggest events of the city is the Flower Carnival, one of the best-known annual events of Hungary! Every year the city of Debrecen, between 15 and 21 of August, gets even more fille with flowers and colorful plants.
This festival was officially  born in 1966 to celebrate in a spectacular and creative way the day of St Stephen’s which is the 20th of August but its story seems to go way back to the beginning of the last century: in September 1900, the Debrecen Civil Bicycle Association organized a bicycle competition an the  highlight of this race was a large-scale flower parade. 
But the first official carnival took place in the summer of 1966 and since that first one, the festival has grown and grown and has become the 7-days celebration that we know today. 
Usually, the 20th is still the biggest day of this event because as the traditions wants there should be a parade with wagons bade at art that start from the train station and go slowly one after the other to the great forest park, on the other side of the city center. For the last two years (2020-2021) this plan had to be re-arranged since the pandemic made the usual celebrations impossible to fulfill completely, but that did not stop the flower carnival! In 2020 the main square was filled with flower statues and wagons that colored the center of the city for days and at the local zoo and children park were offered as many attractions, games, carousels, shows and dances as possible. In 2021 the municipality decided to spread the amazing and artistic flower-statues all around the city for all the 7 days of carnival and has planned in the main square as well as in the park and in some other city spots shows, concerts, puppets shows, dance essays, stalls and games to do and to spend some amazing moments with all the family and friends you want. For sure right now the celebration is not as big and great as it used to be, but this is not stopping the Hungarians from celebrating one of their favorite holydays! 
If you pass by Debrecen during the summer it is a must to visit this festival, even only one day can be filled with open air music, parades, exhibitions, concerts, shows, flash mob and so on… it is just magical.

Sources and useful links:
https://debreceniviragkarneval.hu/?lang=en
https://www.festivalfinder.eu/festivals/debreceni-vir%C3%A1gkarnev%C3%A1l
https://hungarytoday.hu/50th-debrecen-flower-carnival-gallery/