(LifeSiteNews) — Hungary celebrated its Christian heritage on St. Stephen’s Day with fireworks and a giant cross formed in the sky by drones.

On August 20, Hungary celebrated its national holiday, the feast of Saint Stephen I, the first King of Hungary. During the festivities, drones with lights formed a giant cross above the Danube River, close to the Parliament building. Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Szijjarto, shared a picture of the floating cross with the caption “Another thousand years,” in reference to Hungary having been a Christian nation for a millennium.

The show also featured fireworks, a marching band, and a procession with the relics of St. Stephen.

Another thousand years 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/uxdZ05qVVt

— Péter Szijjártó (@FM_Szijjarto) August 20, 2025

“On St. Stephen’s Day, we celebrate our thousand-year-old Christian Hungarian state, the foundation of our nation – a pillar of Christian Europe,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on X. “Proud to carry forward this legacy of faith, strength, and independence.”

During his first reign as prime minister (1998-2002), Orbán played a key role in moving the crown of St. Stephen from a museum to the center of the Parliament building, a symbolic act that stressed the importance of Hungary’s Christian heritage.

“Today, 20th of August, feast of St. Stephen: Celebrations all over the world wherever Hungarians are,” Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See, Archduke Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen, said. “We celebrate over 1,000 years of being a Christian nation.”

Hungary held a similar light show on St. Stephen’s Day in 2023, when drones formed a giant floating cross and a giant crown.

During the Soviet reign, the feast of St. Stephen was suppressed. The communist regime deliberately chose August 20, 1949, as the day to ratify their new Stalinist constitution in an apparent attempt to replace the feast and promote atheistic communism. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the 40-year communist occupation of Hungary ended, and the Feast Day of St. Stephen became Hungary’s new national holiday.

King St. Stephen I was a zealous Catholic and Hungary’s first Christian King. Pope Sylvester II crowned him in the year 1000. He died on the feast of Assumption in 1038, and on his deathbed he dedicated the country to Mary. He and his son Emeric were canonized by Pope St. Gregory VII in 1083.