8.

Holidays and celebrations

Family holidays
Public holidays
Religious holidays
Weekdays and holidays
Customs and traditions
We celebrate birthdays, namedays, wedding anniversaries, Mothers Day, Christmas and Easter. If the
baby has been recently born, parents usually organise a christening or name-giving ceremony but its not
a habit in my family now. Marriages are also important moments in the life of family. In Hungary all
couples have to get married in the registry office, but can have a church wedding too. In the registry
office the ceremony is led by a registrar, and the couples and their two witnesses sign the register. The
bride, especially in the church, wears a long white wedding dress with veil and train, the bridegroom
wears an elegant black suit with a white shirt and a tie. After the ceremony a reception is held, where
several kinds of dishes are served. The new couple cuts the wedding cake. At midnight the so-called
brides dance starts. All the guests dance with the bride and give some money to the couple to contribute
to their new life together.
Our public holidays are March 15 (Hungarian revolution and war of independence of 1848-49), August
20 (St. Stephens day; Foundation of State; new bread) and October 23 (the day of Declaration of the
Hungarian republic; memorial day of 1956)
The most important religious holidays are Christmas and Easter. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of
Jesus Christ. In Hungary the most important day is Christmas Eve, when the family gets together for the
Christmas dinner. The traditional dishes are fish soup stuffed cabbage and poppy seed and nut rolls. The
Christmas tree is decorated before the dinner, and presents are placed under it and are opened in the
evening. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day relatives visit each other and have lunch together. (maybe
church, midnight service) At Easter we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. On Easter Sunday morning
we eat ham, hard-boiled eggs and cold pork in aspic. On Easter Monday boys visit relatives and friends
and sprinkle women and girls with perfume or water. They get chocolate or painted eggs, and chocolate
bunnies.