A few days after Palm Sunday now we’re getting ready to celebrate Easter in Hungary. The weather has suddenly become warm and now that we’re enjoying longer daylight the holiday finally seems real. The photo I chose of a Hungarian Easter table may not be fully authentic but it is picturesque, the ham is real…
Although we’re experiencing a short winter return and COVID-19 virus news is depressing, let’s not forget to notice and feel grateful for SPRING coming. 25 March takes a special place in the Christian and rural folk calendar: it is the Feast of the Annunciation or Lady Day in the Christian Calendar. Hungarian language is beautifully…
Now that the last week of Advent just started, we recommend something light before Christmas starts. This is an expectation anyway in traditional Christian culture as fasting is a way to prepare the body and mind for the celebration. Advent in a nutshell In Christian culture the four Sundays before Christmas is called Advent. The…
Advent is celebrated in many ways. A hundred years ago it was natural to devote this time to waiting and preparing for Christmas. It was a time to prepare the soul for celebration and through fasting to prepare the stomach for the feast. By today, the festive season has lost much of its religious content.…
Fasting during Lent for many means keeping a strict diet, but now I’m looking at the word’s archaic meaning. Fasting combined with different forms of abstinence is an important feature in many religions. Roman Catholic peasants living in rural Szeged, like in other rural regions in Hungary, observed Lent until the middle of the 20th…