Saturday, December 22, 2012

2012 HUNGARIAN CHRISTMAS STAMP : MAGYAR POSTA

YOU'VE GOT A FEW DAYS TO WRITE DOWN YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!

I know that most of us don't actually follow through on most of them, but I think it helps to make that list, to know what it is we really want to do with our lives...  And if we only manage to cut back on smoking, or loose five pounds instead of twenty-five, so we made the effort, and that counts!

Wishing all my readers all the things to wish for...


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

6000 TONS OF CHRISTMAS TREATS - OVERSIZED BON BONS

Szaloncukor (Salon Sugar) from Hungary - melted chocolate, sugar, whipped cream, orange juice... any flavor...the filling is always the surprise...covered in tissue and foils...hung on the trees...leave the paper on the tree as an ornament...

Friday, December 14, 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

HUNGARIAN CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS : EMBROIDERY and CRAFTS

The other day I was shopping for HUNGARIAN or HUNGARIAN INSPIRED Christmas ornaments - decorations for the tree, the "Christmas Tree" that is a tradition that came from the Northern European countries and from Pagan tree worship but which is popular in most European countries as it is in the United States. 

I found  many selections on line that are in the category of patriotic flags, flag colors, and Hungarian sayings.

I wanted something more traditional, and I think that means Hungarian embroidery; hearts, roosters, cats, boots, angels, and pigs, owls, even dogs - devil dogs, all embroidered colorfully on cut out shapes made of felt. I understand that a slang term for this type of ornament is MATYOS after the ethnic people, you could say a sub-group of Hungarians, who perhaps most excelled in the art and lived mostly in the Abauj-Torno- Zemplen counties which are today up against Slovakia. (You see this embroidery on folk costumes (clothes) too.)

Although I'm not too experienced with embroidery, I was introduced to it as a child and believe that I could make one or two ornaments of felt in the same spirit.