Hungarian Easter Traditions

Here, Easter Monday is a little more Easter than Easter Sunday.  Yesterday, the town was FULL and everyone was out with their families and shopping and walking around.  Today, the town is completely desolate!

We are having our Easter dinner today also.

This brings me to ancient Hungarian Folklore traditions....

Folklore tradition says that on Easter Monday, Boys will "water" girls will cold water, and girls are supposed to give them chocolate.

When I asked my students about Easter traditions this is what they told me...The girls looked like they didn't really like Easter, But the boys were laughing and acted like the loved Easter!  Of course if this is the tradition!  They said that boys they knew would be allowed into their house to dump cold water on the girls to wake them up!

So I think young cheeky boys still do this to the girls as a joke, but now it's more appropriate for the boys to walk around with perfume and the girls to walk around with chocolate eggs.  The boys recite the following poem to girls, asking if they can "water" or spray them with perfume.  And then the girls say yes, the boys (nicely) squirt their neck, and the girls give them chocolate eggs.  (My girl students informed me that "nice boys" spray you with perfume if they like you as a friend, a girlfriend, or even as an elder--like a boy would spray perfume on his grandmother or female neighbors.  Cheeky boys get you with the cold water!  And apparently, you are lucky if you don't get ANY cold water splashed on you Easter Monday). 

There's all sorts of symbolism here, and I can imagine where this tradition came from...Men helping women to become "beautiful" and "pretty" and "smell nice" in the spring time.  Being done with winter and ready for summer.  Blooming of flowers.  An old courting ritual for springtime--You can just imagine 8 year old boys splashing the girl he likes in his class on the playground.  Only here, Adult males get to act like children too! (As if they don't already...we won't get into that, though)


"Zöld erdőben jártam kék ibolyát láttam elakart hervadni.  Szabad e locsolni?"  
>  I've been in the green forest, I saw a blue flower and it was going to wilt.  Can I water you?

--> Apparently this is the most simple, and the Easter poem can range from this to a little longer and funnier! 

Anyway, I thought this was a cute little tradition.  At first I thought it was a rediculous tradition for Easter...Splashing cold water on girls is NOT nice!  But the perfume and poem combo sounds just lovely for spring time!  Imagine getting sprayed by the boy you like on Easter?


§§§ Update:  I thought I was off the hook, but I got sprayed with perfume at dinner. Now I smell!