The northern Croatian region of Medjimurje commemorated on Monday the 104th anniversary of the decision to secede from Hungary and join Croatia.

“January 9 is one of the most important dates in our history,” Medimurje County prefect, Matija Posavec, said on Monday. “At a large national assembly in Cakovec on 9 January 1919,” state platform Hina explained, “a resolution was adopted on Medjimurje’s secession from the Kingdom of Hungary.”

“Medjimurje was under Hungarian rule for 57 years, subject to someone else’s desire to impose their own culture, language, and customs. But the people of Medjimurje never allowed this to happen,” Posavec said az an official ceremony in Cakovec, the largest town and seat of the small region.

“The fact that so many people had gathered in 1919, when there were no cell phones or the Internet, was a big deal,” Posavec said.

Hina did not report how many people attended the 1919 assembly.

“At least one person from almost every household took part in the assembly where the resolution on secession from Hungary and unification with Croatia was read out,” Posavec said, stressing that Medjimurje today is “a region of strong identity, with strong self-awareness of its customs, culture and character”.

The day commemorating Medjimurje’s unification with Croatia is observed as a memorial day, in line with a a decision the Croatian Parliament adopted in 2005, at the initiative of then MP Dragutin Lesar.