Which color goes on the outside, red or green? Ask that in a Hungarian kindergarten in the week before 23 October and you will get a confident answer from every child, and not always the same one. That small argument is a good place to start with Hungary national day coloring pages: a cockade to color, cut out and pin on, a flag, the Parliament, and a few pages for the last school days before the autumn break.
Why is 23 October a day off?
In 2026 the day falls on a Friday, and it is a public holiday. For schools it is also the first day of the autumn break, which runs until Sunday 1 November, so the last school day is Thursday 22 October (Pénzcentrum). That Thursday is when most kindergartens and lower classes hold their own small commemoration.
The version for a five year old is short. On 23 October 1956, university students in Budapest marched through the city and asked for change, and so many people joined them that hundreds of thousands stood in front of the Parliament. On the same date in 1989, the Republic of Hungary was proclaimed from that building, and since 1991 the day has been a national holiday by law (Hungarian Government, Memorial Day). That is enough for the age group. Older children will ask more, and the questions are worth answering at the table.
Two pages carry that story without any of the hard parts: the flag on its pole, and the Parliament on the Danube with a boat going past.
The flag page has three plain stripes and a lot of sky, so a three year old can finish it. The Parliament has many spires and windows; give it to a school child with sharp pencils and an afternoon.
Which color goes on the outside?
The kokárda is a rosette in the national colors. The story children hear is that Júlia Szendrey made the first red, white and green one (Eduline) and pinned it on her husband, the poet Sándor Petőfi (Infostart).
Most cockades you see today have green in the middle and red on the outer ring. One theory says that is backwards: a rosette is read from the center outward, so green in the middle reads as green, white, red, which is the Italian flag (Eduline). The ethnographer Zsuzsanna Tátrai puts it plainly: green belongs outside and red inside (Infostart). There is no law that settles it.
So let your child choose, and let them tell you why. A child who colors the outer ring green because "you read it from the middle" has understood something most grown-ups never think about.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free for iOS & Android. No ads, no sign-up, offline-ready.
Coloring fun for kids — anywhere.
Free coloring app for kids. iOS and Android, phones and tablets. No ads, no sign-up, even offline.
How does a colored page become a cockade you can wear?
Paper cockades are a classic kindergarten craft in Hungary, made from colored paper or from a printed sheet the children color themselves (Lurkóvilág). This is the printed version, and it takes about twenty minutes:
- 1Color the three rings with firm strokes, so the paper looks red, white and green from across the room. The white ring can stay paper white.
- 2Cut along the outer edge. Small children cut the big curve; you do the tight bits.
- 3Glue the cockade onto a circle of thin card, like the back of a cereal box, so it stays flat on a coat.
- 4Tape a safety pin across the back. You pin it on, and you take it off before the coat goes in the wash.
The pin is a grown-up job for anyone under five. For the smallest, a loop of tape or a strip of double-sided tape holds the paper on a sweater just as well for one morning.
What else can you color in the last week before the break?
For the class that finishes early, or the sibling who wants a page too, here are two more. One shows three children in a school courtyard with their flags and cockades, the leaves already coming down. The other is the craft table itself: cockades in three stages, paper circles, scissors, a glue stick and the safety pin.
The craft table page works well as a first page before the real craft: color it, talk through what each thing is for, then make the cockade.
For more flags, tulips and castles in the catalog:
What else could you color?
Pick a prompt or type your own — opens in a new tab.
What happens to the cockade after Friday?
Keep it. The same rosette comes out again on 15 March, the other big national day, and by then your child will want to argue about the color order all over again. Slip it into an envelope with the date on it and put it somewhere you will find in spring. A paper cockade that has been worn twice, a little bent at the edge, is worth more to a six year old than a new one.
