I envision, when I imagine Hungary, a dark, gloomy, depressing atmosphere. Filled with dark fog, cobble stone roads, and hunched-over men and woman slowly dragging along the walks. It’s really not a very pretty picture that I imagine. What do you see?
Hungary has one of the highest suicide, depression, alcoholism and early death rate in the world. Of course there are many theories, fables and tales explaining the phenomena, one very interesting song explains it pretty well.
Gloomy Sunday, written in the 1930s and is still played today, talks of depressions and suicide. The lyrics are dark and bleak-
Let them know that I’m glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death I’m caressing you
With the last breath of my soul
The song, Gloomy Sunday, is also known as the “suicide anthem.” The song, according to legend, is cursed and whose ever ears takes it in, are haunted with voices encouraging to kill themselves.
In my opinion, the song itself (without the lyrics), is quite a beautiful one. You can hear the song with the lyrics here, sung by Billie Holiday.
The songs sounds sad, but it’s good. The Billie Holiday version is really good, I like it a lot.