The hand raised in the gesture of an oath and the rosette in national colours are symbols of the 1848 revolution in Hungary which began on the 15 of March. The motif of an oath recalls the words of the romantic poet and hero of the 1848 revolution Sándor Petofi: 'we swear not to be slaves any more'.

The way in which this date has been remembered and interpreted in Hungary has always depended on the current political situation. In 1927 it was declared for a day of official commemoration and a national holiday and was treated as a symbol of the country's independence. In 1948, the centenary celebrations of the 1848 revolution were informed by communist ideology and the idea of the struggle against the West. From 1951 the 4th of April, the date when the Red Army liberated Hungary, replaced the 15th of April as a national holiday. From the end of the 1960s the 15th of March was integrated with important dates in the communist calendar (all falling in the spring) to form the 'The Days of Revolutionary Youth' celebrations. In the 1980s the 15th of March became an occasion for the opposition movement to manifest itself in meetings, and speeches at memorial sites to the 1848 revolution. Any spontaneous celebration of 15th March at that time was suppressed by the police.

The prolific and successful designer, Péter Pócs, living in Kecskemét, reacted not only to events in the capital Budapest but also to what was happening in his own home town.