2. • There are a lot of interesting folk customs still alive all
over Hungary. Many of them are connected with
religious holidays, while others have older origins, from
early, sometimes from prehistoric years. The two, most
known customs of Easter are the "sprinkling" and the
egg-painting. Both are very common in both urban and
rural areas, among people of every age-group.
3. The old tradition is shown on the first two pictures. These photos here show folk costumes
that people wear just for special occasions today. Today women wear casual dresses for
sprinkling, not folk costumes. Also, men sprinkle with cologne, not with water. A couple of
decades ago men poured water on women in rural areas and women changed their clothes
after each sprinkling. Boys often dragged girls to the well and poured water on them with
pail. Sometimes they washed them in creek.
The possible reason for this very old tradition is that people believed in the
cleaning, healing and fertility effect of water.
Easter is a 2-day holiday in Hungary. On Monday boys and men visit all of their women
relatives, friends, neighbors, often even if they are not close friends. Boys in small
groups, fathers with their sons, or single men leave early in the morning and their "tour"
last all day long. They greet girls and women with shorter - longer poems (mostly with a
funny poem about "Eastern sprinkling") and sprinkle them with cologne. Women must be
well-prepared, they treat men with dessert and beverages - and with hand-painted eggs.
Women usually prepare in the previous days by cleaning up the house
thoroughly, decorating, cooking and painting a couple dozen eggs.
4. There is a competition among young girls - who gets the
most "sprinklers" wins. It is a shame if the girl is not
ready early morning when the first visitor rings the bell.
The result? Women wear more then a dozen of different
colognes by Monday evening, and sometimes the
alcoholic beverages are harmful for men also. Many
times, sprinkling continues on the next day in the
working places and we, women wait the evening
desperately to wash our hair.
5. Egg painting
• There are many different painting method alive. The
simplest way is to cook the egg enveloped into a
dented leaf, in painting water. The covered part of
the egg remains white and will show the pattern of
the leaf.
Painting liquid can be made from onion skin, wild
pear, green walnut or other vegetables yielding
different natural colors.
Sometimes women "write the egg". They draw folk
patterns on the egg by melted wax and put the eggs
into painting after this. The egg remains white below
the wax and will show the pattern.
But the most beautiful eggs are painted by hand with
different colors following traditional folk patterns.
6. Source of pictures and text
• 100inamerica.blogspot.com
• ghorayebtravel.net
• blogs.voanews.com
• boston.com
• womansday.com
• newshopper.sulekha.com
7. • Thanks for attention
• The material prepared Edita Harutyunyan
