Mission Chestnut

In its WittyLeaks section, Diplomacy & Trade carries articles written by ambassadors accredited to Hungary on topics that are outside their official duties. For a recent issue, the Austrian Ambassador, who has since left Hungary, wrote the following story.

'Palais Semsey', the residence of the Austrian Ambassador to Hungary in the 12th district of Budapest, is located in a beautiful private park, which is home to a multitude of old chestnut trees. Every autumn, they rid themselves of a heavy load of chestnuts.

Collecting chestnuts is an old tradition in Austria. Especially for children, this activity is very appealing. In Vienna, the collection of chestnuts serves an even higher purpose: The “Lainzer Tiergarten”, one of the last pieces of original Wienerwald around Vienna, is a wildlife sanctuary that houses large number of deer, which need feeding in winter. Therefore, the zoo pays for every kilogram of chestnuts collected to insure that the deer are well fed through winter.

Chestnuts, however, do not only serve as animal food, but they are also used to craft little animals and figurines with the help of tooth picks – a popular activity in kindergartens and schools during autumn.

The collectors

With the privilege of being surrounded by beautiful old chestnut trees, the only thing missing was somebody to collect nature’s treasure. As so often, the solution lay nearby. Just a short distance from the premises of Palais Semsey is the campus of two schools, both supported by the Austrian and the Hungarian state. The ‘Österreich-Ungarische Europaschule’, run by De La Salle International, teaches children from seven to fourteen years, and the ‘Österreichische Schule Budapest’, run by a bilateral foundation, for children from fourteen to eighteen years of age. The language of instruction in both schools, which teach the Austrian and parts of the Hungarian curriculum, is German, while the majority of the pupils are Hungarian, with a number of children from Austria and countries all over the world contributing to a multi-cultural and multi-lingual environment.

In 2010, my wife and I decided to invite the first-graders from the ‘Europaschule’, with their teachers, to collect chestnuts at the residence, located only a short walk away from the school. Since then, every autumn, children and teachers march in a neat file through the Svábhegy neighborhood towards the residence to fill their backpacks and pockets with these little round things. Fortunately, even the weather has always played along so that we could carry out the activity in beautiful autumn-sunshine.

While the seven-year-olds swarm out like little bees for honey in search of as many chestnuts as possible, their teachers enjoy a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. As a fence surrounds the garden of the residence, the teachers can relax while the kids safely explore the terrain. They might even stumble across one of the resident hedgehogs.

Once the bags are full or the park is emptied of chestnuts, whichever comes first, the little collectors come back for juice and some freshly prepared delicacies, like muffins or ‘pigs in a blanket’. When their hunger is satisfied and their thirst is quenched, the children are asked to sign the visitors’ book. Their little drawings and “Zsófi”, and “Márton” and “Boldi” signatures, written in spidery handwriting, are a lovely additions and inspiring alternations to the signatures and messages of official guests and visiting dignitaries.

Annual chestnut campaigns

Meanwhile, many anecdotes surround the annual chestnut campaign. In 2012 for example, so many chestnuts were collected that the backpacks and bags brought by the children were not sufficient. So we helped out with plastic bags. This led to a sit-in protest on the way back to school, because the ‘load’ was too heavy for the students’ little backs and hands. Only a ‘flying-squad’ sent by the school after a desperate call from one of the accompanying teachers could persuade the kids to continue their way back to class.

In 2010, the kids were asked to draw a picture of the residence in class after their outing. Their pieces of art were made into an album that showed around 30 completely different buildings, from little gingerbread houses to turreted knight’s castles and fairy-tale palaces, all meaning to depict the residence. Seemingly, some kids had even spotted wild animals in the park! None of the drawings seemed to show the same building. What a beautiful example this was for how children see the world from different angles than we do – and from each other, too.

Our annual chestnut mission does not entirely fit diplomatic protocol but the children’s impressions of a morning at the ambassador’s residence probably last longer, and might even be more appreciated than those of many of the adults who are invited to the more traditional events there.