Culture as National Treasure Life Long Learning Comenius Project 20072008

1
Culture as National Treasure Life Long
Learning Comenius Project
2007/2008

• EASTER
• in
• HUNGARY
• made by
• DE Kossuth Lajos Gyakorló
  Általános Iskolája
• 4024 DEBRECEN
• Kossuth utca 33.
• Hungary

2
The religious traditions of Easter
3

• At Easter we celebrate
• the resurrection of
• Jesus Christ.
• In Hungarian we call Lent the Great Fast.
• During Lent you cannot eat any meat.
• The day before Ash Wednesday (Shrove Tuesday) is
  the so called Meat Abandoning Tuesday.

4

• Centuries ago branches and flowers of the spring
  were blessed on Palm Sunday. In Hungarian it is
  called Flower Sunday.

5

• Good Friday
• was spent in
• total fast almost
• all over the
• country.
• Before Good Friday women clean the house, bake
  and decorate eggs.
• In some regions girls decorate eggs only on Good
  Friday.
• Egg-gifts are given in front of the church by
  godparents to their godchildren.

6

• On Holy Saturday, in a food basket
  doughnuts,smoked ham, red eggs ,salt and wine are
  taken to the church to be blessed.
• This food will be eaten after the resurrection
  ceremonies.
• On this day meat can be eaten again after 40 days
  of fast.

7
EASTER A LONG TIME AGO
8

• EASTER MONDAY
• SPRINKLING
• Formerly men sprinkled or splashed water on women
  in rural areas ,so sometimes they had to change
  their clothes after each sprinkling.
• Boys often dragged girls to the well and poured a
  pail of water on them .
• Sometimes they washed the girls in a creek. They
  thought this cleaning made the girls be good
  future wives with many children.

9

• People believed in the cleaning, healing and
  fertility effect of water.
• The girls rewarded the boys with decorated
  eggs,bacon, bread and a glass of wine.
• Nearly every village had its own egg decorating
  artist. She was usually an older woman from whom
  girls could buy decorated eggs.

10

• Hungarian girls decorated twenty or even thirty
  eggs for a special boyfriend.
• He would put all his eggs away for several weeks
  and then get them out again to have another look.
• The girl whose egg had lost most of its colour
  was pining for him.

11

• In some parts of western Hungary, on Easter
  Monday after the church ceremony, people went to
  the wine cellars where they had a party till
  morning.
• At the western border of Hungary instead of
  sprinkling, the boys gently whipped the girls
  with a whip called siba.The girls then put a
  ribbon on the whip and served the men with wine.
  

12

• On Tuesday after Easter in some places girls went
  to sprinkle the men.
• In the north of Hungary, the night before Easter
  men went to collect (that is to steal) 8-10
  eggs. They made scrambled eggs at a girls house
  and ate it with bacon.
• They threw the eggs shells in front of the
  house of a girl they were angry with.
• Then they started their sprinkling tour.

13
EASTER NOWADAYS
14

• Easter is a 2 days holiday in Hungary .
• The day before Easter women usually clean up the
  house, cook the ham and decorate the eggs -
  together with their daughters and granddaughters.
• A traditional breakfast consists of Easter-eggs,
  ham with horse radish, braided sweet -bread and
  hot chocolate.
• Many families go to church on Easter Sunday.

15

• On Monday boys and men visit most of their women
  relatives, friends, neighbours.
• Boys in small groups, fathers with their sons
  leave early in the morning and their wandering"
  lasts all day long.
• Today boys sprinkle girls with cologne and
  recite Easter rhymes.

16

• Girls still give some presents to boys,but
  besides painted eggs they give their visitors
  chocolate eggs or Easter bunnies.
• There is a competition among young girls. She who
  gets the most "sprinklers" wins.

17

• Sometimes boys get some money from grandmas or
  relatives for sprinkling them.
• There is a kind of competition among boys,too. He
  who gets the most eggs,wins.
• Women often wear more than a dozen of different
  scents by Monday evening,and sometimes men get a
  little drunk by the end of the day.

18

• Sprinkling often continues on the next day at
  school and the girls cannot wait to wash their
  hair in the evening.

19
The symbols of Easter
20
Easter eggs- Egg dyeing

• The egg symbolizes the origin of life.
• It is the symbol of fertility and resurrection
  ,too.
• People believed that red colour has a magical
  power.It protects people and symbolizes Christs
  blood.

21

• There are many different dyeing methods.
• You can buy a tasket of eggpaint at the shops.
  You solve it in water and then cook the egg in
  it.
• Dye can be made from onion skin, for example.

22

• Some girls "write on the egg. They draw patterns
  on the egg with wax or soap and put the eggs into
  the dye after that.
• The pattern will remain white after dyeing the
  egg this way.
• Some women paint traditional folk patterns on
  their eggs by hand.
• There are people who can put very small
  horseshoes on the eggs.

23
The Rabbit
Why does the rabbit bring the Easter eggs? The
rabbit was Christs symbol,but it seems more
likely,that it is connected with Ostara,the
German goddes.According to the legend the rabbit
originally was a bird.One day the goddes got
angry with it and transformed it into a
four-legged animal.
24

• It can also be a misunderstanding,
• that we can find the rabbit among the symbols
  of Easter.
• In some parts of Germany people presented each
  other with guinea-fowl and their eggs.Hasel
  means guinea-fowl in German.Haseis the German
  word for rabbit.
• Today the Easter rabbit is popular.Because of its
  reproducibility it symbolizes fertility.

25
The Catkin

• Many years ago people said that the fluffy flower
  of catkin had a special healing power. Throwing
  it into the family hearth it protected the house
  from troubles. Swallowing it as a medicine it
  healed sore throat.

26
The wheat

• The red egg among the green leaves of wheat in
  the Easter Nest symbolizes the resurrected
  Christ.
• The wheat seed sacrifizes itself for a new twig
  to be born.
• Although it is not big,still the power in its
  seed is great which symbolizes the power within
  us.

27
The lamb

• The oldest Easter symbol is the Easter lamb.
  Lambs are usually born in spring. Jesus Christ
  died as a sacrifical lamb on the crucifix for the
  redemption of humanity.
• This is why he is called the lamb of God.In our
  country few families eat lamb at Easter, but
  Easter ham is served very often.

28
An interview with a grandfather
29
Easter in the old times in villages

• Hello grandpa, how are you?
• Im fine.
• I make an interview about Easter in the old
  times in villages. I wrote the questions
  yesterday, but I didnt find anyone, who can talk
  about this theme. Grandpa, help me!!!

30

• Okay I help you.
• Lets start with some questions about the
  origins. What do we celebrate at Easter?
• The death and the resurrection of Jesus. He
  died on the cross on Good Friday, so we mourn and
  we dont eat meat on this day. He was resurrected
  on Easter Sunday, so Christian people celebrate
  on this day.

31

• When is Easter?
• We celebrate it some time between March 22 and
  April 25.
• What did people do in the old times in villages?
  Are there any interesting customs we have in
  connection with Easter?

32

• On Easter Sunday morning people in the villages
  met and they searched for Jesus. Today they dont
  do this convention. In some villages the people
  went up to the heights to see the rising sun,
  because thats the symbol of the resurrection
  too.
• Were there other customs?
• A popular tradition was the Walking of the Green
  sprigs/sprouts.

33

• What happened then?
• The girls stood in a row of pairs and they
  lifted up their joined hands, to make a tent form
  and they walked around the village this way. They
  sang songs about spring. Every child knows one of
  them, you too. Its a kind of nursery rhyme.
  About a green sprout.
• Oh yes! It says Come out, come out green
  sprout, little green leaves (Bújj, bújj zöld
  ág)

34

• What did people do on Easter Monday?
• Easter Monday in the life of Hungarian people is
  the day of sprinkling since the seventeenth
  century. The boys went to the girls houses to
  sprinkle them.
• The same way we do it today?
• Yes, thats right. The girls traditionally gave
  the boys painted, decorated eggs.

35

• Did they make the eggs the same way as now?
• They dipped the eggs in wax, then scratched off
  a pattern and put the eggs in some paint, so the
  pattern was coloured.
• Or they drew a nice motif on the egg with wax,
  and then put the eggs in the paint, so the
  pattern wasnt coloured.

36

• So yes, this custom lives today, too. If they
  didnt have paint they boiled onions with their
  reddish skin on and put eggs in this juice. The
  eggs became reddish - brownish coloured.
• - What did the boys use to sprinkle the girls ?
• -' In the old times the boys soaked the girls
  with water from buckets or soda water bottles,
  but today the boys sprinkle the girls with
  cologne or perfume. And they must say Easter
  poems.

37

• - At school we sometimes do the sprinkling the
  traditional way. Out teachers arent very happy
  when there is water all over the school!
• Oh,yes,I can understand them.
• Thank you,Grandpa.
• Youre welcome.
• Here is a simple Easter rhyme
• White rabbit, reddish egg,
• For sprinkling, give me a peck.

38
School exhibition on Easter
39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
(No Transcript)
43
(No Transcript)
44
(No Transcript)
45
(No Transcript)