The idea of the Hungarian Haiku Day was proposed at the Hungary-Japan Friendship Society by Judit Vihar in the winter of 2013. She asked the director of the Haiku Club, Adrienn Czifra to start the arrangements. The first event was held in the spring of 2014, and since then the Hungarian Haiku Day is organised every year, with increasing number of visitors year by year. This event is unique, since such an event is held only in Hungary and the US.
Among the various activities there are lectures, haiku- and haiga readings, introduction of Hungarian and Japanese haiku poets, haiga exhibitions, ginko-kukai, and performance of musical haikus. Furthermore there are other activities about the Japanese culture like calligraphy or karuta competition. As a unique activity, the participants of a competition watch ikebana or tea ceremony performance, and then they are asked to express their impressions about what they saw in haiku. Pre-competitions also take place, to which entrants can submit haiku, haiga and haibun in specific topics. Recent topics included words like “quarantine”, “cherry blossoms”, “nails”, and “the world of stars”.
Adrienn Czifra, the secretary of the Haiku Club