Matyas Templom

Mézeskalács

Sziget

Tervezett

A puszta

Disznovagas

Lovas programok

Vuk

A Kisherceg

Festival of Folk Arts (Mesterségek Ünnepe) in Budapest
19th-21st August 2012
Halasz Bastya

Halasz Judit

Dunakanyar

Aggtelek

Balaton

szecsenyi furdo

Honfoglalas

A Feher Szarvas

A Turul

A Csillagszemu Pasztor

Feherlofia

Susu

Frakk

Kortancok
Locsolas
A cimer
Szent Istvan
vásár
kukoricafosztás,
betlehemezés-advent,
farsang
balázsolás
Gergely-járás
ballagás
húsvét
pünkösd

Pünkösd

Pünkösd - Pentecost
While Punkosd is a Catholic holiday, the day when the Holy Spirit was supposed to have descended on the Virgin Mary and the other apostles, there are a lot of other traditions for this day as well.  It is also a Jewish holiday, Shauvot, the day when the Torah was given, and the feast of the new bread, when the spirit of God was symbolized by fire and rushes of wind, which symbolized God's presence and mercy.  This was the last day of the Easter Season.  It was one of the three major holidays of the Jewish people. 

In Western Christinity, Pentecost is fifty days after Easter, so the earliest it can be is May 10 and the latest is June 13. In Catholic churches they bless holy water on this day, and often do Confirmations.  May is sometimes called the month of Pentecost.


In Hungarian culture there are many traditions tied with Pentecost, which reach back to times before Christianity.  A lot of them can be traced back to the roman floralia festivals, which were festive holidays welcoming spring, when they honored the goddess Flora, who was the deity of plants and flowers, and feritility.  In her Greek form, she was named Khloris - or the greening, the budding.  In the Onycan tradition, these days are celebrated on Flower Day - Beltane, or May Day.
In Hungarian-speaking regions, a great deal of people used to celebrate the first of May by standing "May Trees" in their communities.  Often they tore them down on Pentecost.  The May Tree and green branches were the symbols of renewing spring, and often signs of courting young love, and counted as a romantic gesture.  If a young man liked a girl, he would gather a group of his friends or even some of her relatives together and together, in the middle of the night or at dawn, they would fasten tall, slender trees to the gate posts outside the girl's house.  This would then be decorated with colorful ribbons, foods, and drinks.  Often the whole community would have a tree in common as well, and the day they cut it down they would hold a festival and dance.

There would also be Pentecost Kings.  They would hold festivals of skill and strength - throwing things into hoops, carrying logs, etc. - which would decide who was to be the may king.  Whenever there was a Pentecost party or festival in town, they would have him be the honored guest, and he could eat or drink for free for either the week or sometimes even for a whole year.  Often lads would have to prove themselves as may kings before they were allowed to court girls or drink with the other men in the drinking houses, or kocsmas.
Other traditions included lacing green branches, flowers (especially pentecost roses, jasmine, or bodza) so that lightning wouldn't hit their house that year.  In some villages only houses with marriagable daughters decorated their houses with branches.

Eredetileg 4 nagyobb lány (később több) körbevisz a faluban egy ötödiket. Ő a legkisebb, a legszebb. Énekelnek, és jókívánságokat ismételgetnek. Megálltak az udvarokon, majd a pünkösdi királyné feje fölé kendőt feszítettek ki, vagy letakarták őt fátyollal. Énekeltek, közben körbejárták a királynét, a végén pedig felemelték, s termékenységvarázsló mondókákat mondtak. Az énekek és a mondókák végén ajándékot kaptak. A Dunántúlon jellemző termékenységvarázslással összekötött szokás később adománygyűjtéssel párosult.

Pünkösdölés [szerkesztés]

Ekkor pünkösdi király és királyné párost a kíséretével jelenítettek meg, de volt, ahol lakodalmi menetet menyasszonnyal és vőlegénnyel. Ez a szokás hasonló a pünkösdi királynéjáráshoz, de ez elsősorban adománygyűjtésre szolgált. A gyerekek, vagy fiatalok csapata énekelve, táncolva végigjárta a falut, s adományt gyűjtött.

Törökbasázás, borzakirály, rabjárás [szerkesztés]
In some communities in Western Hungary, boys would elect one boy to stuff his pants full of straw and hit him with sticks.  He represented a Turkish lord, and at each house where he got beaten out by his companions, the people living there would get coins and eggs in return.  (torokbasazas)
Prison-walkers (rabjarok) would tie their legs together and go to the girls in the village with the request to help the poor prisoners of war.  They would also get presents in return.
During borzajárás people would accompany a boy around the village who would get a cloak made of bodza.  They would get presents as well.


 2012. május 27.

Liderc

White Sunday

 

Fehérvasárnap (Dominica in albis)

The Sunday following Easter Sunday was given the name of White Sunday, or Maiden Sunday.

A sweet custom is connected to this day, on which friendships were declared for a lifetime.  Young women sent trays called komatal ("friendship plates") laden with eggs, ham, and challah bread to their best girlfriends - sometimes with a bottle of wine to complete the tray - and covered it all with a decorated cloth.  (In some regions, they decorated "friendship branches" instead.) The delivery was accompanied by a song: 

Komatálat hoztam,

Meg is aranyoztam.

Szűz hozta szűznek,

Koma hozta komának,

Ha nem tetszik komának,

Hazaviszem azon az úton, amelyiken hoztam.

or

I brought you a friendship plate,
I even gilded it for you
A gift from a virgin to a virgin
Brought from friend to friend
If the friend doesn't like it
I'll bring it home on the same road I traveled to get here.

If the potential friend accepted the tray and returned the favor, the two girls became best friends forever, and called each other "mátka" - a term of endearment similar to what a man would call the young woman he was courting.  They would then be bonded and be with one another for the rest of their lives, attending all the important milestones.  (In a few regions, the bond would only last for one year.) 

They would be bridesmaids in one another's weddings and the guests of honor at their wedding parties.  They would become each other's children's godmothers, who would raise the children if the real mother died.  As a token of their "mátkálás", the godmothers would give their godsons red eggs on each Easter.

The folk song Kis kece lányom (seen below) is about this custom.

My precious kece-maiden, dressed all in white

The rose in thy hand is white as well

I tell you, I tell you, turn to me,

My mátka-woman

Citrus menthol, kajai roses

I would go to the dances, if there was a pretty girl

I tell you, I tell you, turn to me,

My mátka-woman

***

Young men had similar friendship customs, held on different days of the year, where they would pledge their loyalty to their own friends, and become honorary brothers in the process.  Their song is widely known even today: 

Koma, koma, komálunk,
Esztendeig kapálunk.
Ha élünk, ha halunk,
Mégis komák maradunk.

Friend, friend, we are friending one another,

We'll hoe together for the year

Whether we live, whether we die

We'll remain friends regardless.

But there was a second, less widely remembered verse as well, and it featured women.

Mátka, mátka, mátkálunk,
Éltül holtig, kiskarácsony napig.
Ha megcsalsz, ha megversz,
Mégis mátkák leszünk.

Friend, friend, we are friending one another,

In our lives, in our deaths, until the day of the new year*

If you cheat me, if you beat me,

We'll remain friends regardless.

And a final dance that was based on this tradition, performed by children.

* literally: "little Christmas", i.e. New Year's Day