Just love the idea that his horses or raindeers went on strike!
Showing posts with label Hungarian Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hungarian Holidays. Show all posts
Friday, December 6, 2024
Sunday, December 10, 2023
HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE A HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN CHRISTMAS?
Do you continue or include Hungarian traditions into your Christmas time celebrations?
Leave me a comment!
Sunday, August 20, 2023
SAINT STEPHEN'S DAY - NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN HUNGARY
Celebrated quite like our Fourth of July, with fireworks, parades, and sports.
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Monday, December 25, 2017
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Saturday, December 2, 2017
BECOMING SANTA : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW
How does Santa get all his work done? This is a documentary film about the process that some people, mostly men, go through to properly represent Santa. It includes an ongoing interview of a graduate of a special Santa Claus School, where the students are told that to children of a certain age, the excitement of meeting Santa is like a fan meeting a rock star. There they learn the best way to fulfill the role. Such as, not making promises they canot keep. And yes there are conventions for full bearded men to compare notes.
Meanwhile, there's a look back to the development of Santa Claus. Did he always wear a red, white fur trimmed coat? Was he always fat and jolly? Was it a Coke-a-Cola ad that introduced us to the man we expect down our chimney with toys?
The history of Santa Claus goes back to Saint Nicholas, born rich, who gave much of his fortune away to people who needed the extra help. In the United States, Santa is a hit by the Civil War era when he makes the Harpers Magazine cover and is suggested to be on the side of the Union. This is a black and white etched look figure, not so fat. In Austria and other European Countries, his visits coincide with the visit of a darker character, a mean, even evil character who can punish children for bad behavior.
Are you ready to take your holiday decorations out of the attic and start to deck the halls? Watch this one before you begin, while you have some hot chocolate and grilled cheese, and take your ornaments out of the tissue paper. Santa's sincerity will grab your heart and maybe even bring a little tear to your eye.
Friday, January 6, 2017
EASTERN CHRISTMAS - THE MAGI GIFT THE BABE
All around Los Angeles, people from Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Armenia, of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity, are celebrating Christmas today, known as Three Kings in Roman Catholicism. So the libraries in some areas still have their Christmas decorations up and decorative outdoor lights are up and lit every night on some of the houses in my area.
It's also dreary, cloudy, cold, and rainy, and so these lights are cheering to see.
It's also dreary, cloudy, cold, and rainy, and so these lights are cheering to see.
Friday, December 23, 2016
Monday, December 12, 2016
I PLAY SAINT NICK and EVERYONE LOVED IT!
A few days ago I met with a group of people who I've know just a few months. None of them are of Hungarian heritage and I had mentioned mine to them here and there, without much of a reaction. I didn't know what to think. Do some of them have secret prejudices against Hungarians or, perhaps, me for my heritage?
Today I took a load of clothes to a charity drop off and tonight I start working on decorating, since, by my way of thinking, the twelve days of Christmas has just about begun.
When I was growing up, we didn't bring the tree inside until Christmas Eve, and then left it up until Three Kings. We also bought live trees and then planted them when the snow thawed.
I'm not going to go "all out," with decorating or celebrating, but I do know that first the house has to be neat and clean.
While I was going through some things, I found some books that I'd bought and read, mostly somewhat spiritual, and decided that I would wrap these up, take them with me when I met with my new friends, and let them each choose.
"I think I've mentioned my Hungarian heritage," I said. One woman looked at me, and I thought she was thinking, "Now what's she up to."
"Well, in Hungary, Christmas is all about Jesus, but then there is Saint Nick's day for presents, which is about now! I admit these are books from my personal collection. Each of you pick one!"
As it turned out, every person picked the book that turned out to be the most perfect for them!
The first person to pick, the most curious you might think, is a retired journalist! The last, a book on spirituality and world peace, who had just come back from a religious retreat!
C 2016 Magyar American BlogSpot All Rights Reserved.
Today I took a load of clothes to a charity drop off and tonight I start working on decorating, since, by my way of thinking, the twelve days of Christmas has just about begun.
When I was growing up, we didn't bring the tree inside until Christmas Eve, and then left it up until Three Kings. We also bought live trees and then planted them when the snow thawed.
I'm not going to go "all out," with decorating or celebrating, but I do know that first the house has to be neat and clean.
While I was going through some things, I found some books that I'd bought and read, mostly somewhat spiritual, and decided that I would wrap these up, take them with me when I met with my new friends, and let them each choose.
"I think I've mentioned my Hungarian heritage," I said. One woman looked at me, and I thought she was thinking, "Now what's she up to."
"Well, in Hungary, Christmas is all about Jesus, but then there is Saint Nick's day for presents, which is about now! I admit these are books from my personal collection. Each of you pick one!"
As it turned out, every person picked the book that turned out to be the most perfect for them!
The first person to pick, the most curious you might think, is a retired journalist! The last, a book on spirituality and world peace, who had just come back from a religious retreat!
C 2016 Magyar American BlogSpot All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Monday, December 5, 2016
CRUSS VON KRAMPUS - COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TONIGHT...
The Christmas Devil comes the day before
Saint Nick does, rounding up the "bad" kids.
One of my aunts told me that when her sons were young,
one Christmas she threatened that their toy gifts
were going to be taken back.
She hid them in a closet for a couple days.
The sons turned into responsible adults.
They don't seem to have been too traumatized by the experience.
Friday, December 25, 2015
CHRISTMAS ANGELS BRING THE TREE
We all know that there are ANGELS in MANY RELIGIONS
and that this image brings in the PAGAN Christmas Tree....
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
END OF THE YEAR IN SIGHT! CERTAINLY THE STORES THINK SO!
This is the point in the year where it seems - almost over.
Halloween and Christmas seasonal items are now on display in many of the stores.
Halloween has become outrageousness and a festival of horror, savagery, and violence, instead of a celebration of the ancestors or a time of prayer for the deceased.
Christmas has become all about shopping.
Well, I remember what it was to work retail during the Christmas season and I can say that it made the holiday a NON-EVENT FOR ME. After you've heard the same Christmas songs for weeks, dealt with a surge of customers who are not always nice, it's not easy to center back to the purpose of the holiday, which is religious.
Although I get it that giving gifts to friends and family is in imitation of the Three Kings who visited Jesus Christ in his infancy, and that being generous and loving is good, I think even the tradition of Santa Claus, based on St. Nicholas, has become too much a celebration of materialism.
I confess to having been effected by the Hustle Bustle of shopping in years past, but mostly I try to keep holidays to a small, private, celebration these days. I give few gifts and usually small or home-made ones. I prefer to celebrate the birthday of a close friend as the time to give a better gift and to give attention to them as an individual then. I love music but I don't enjoy loud parties. I prefer to host a smaller dinner party where people can enjoy conversation and hear each other, perhaps with some low background music on. Good food, a little wine, and appreciation for what we have, to take a pause, that is a holiday to me.
Halloween and Christmas seasonal items are now on display in many of the stores.
Halloween has become outrageousness and a festival of horror, savagery, and violence, instead of a celebration of the ancestors or a time of prayer for the deceased.
Christmas has become all about shopping.
Well, I remember what it was to work retail during the Christmas season and I can say that it made the holiday a NON-EVENT FOR ME. After you've heard the same Christmas songs for weeks, dealt with a surge of customers who are not always nice, it's not easy to center back to the purpose of the holiday, which is religious.
Although I get it that giving gifts to friends and family is in imitation of the Three Kings who visited Jesus Christ in his infancy, and that being generous and loving is good, I think even the tradition of Santa Claus, based on St. Nicholas, has become too much a celebration of materialism.
I confess to having been effected by the Hustle Bustle of shopping in years past, but mostly I try to keep holidays to a small, private, celebration these days. I give few gifts and usually small or home-made ones. I prefer to celebrate the birthday of a close friend as the time to give a better gift and to give attention to them as an individual then. I love music but I don't enjoy loud parties. I prefer to host a smaller dinner party where people can enjoy conversation and hear each other, perhaps with some low background music on. Good food, a little wine, and appreciation for what we have, to take a pause, that is a holiday to me.
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.
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.
Friday, April 6, 2012
EASTER BUNNY AND EGGS : SPRING FERTILITY!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
NO JACK O LANTERNS IN HUNGARY BUT ANCESTOR WORSHIP IS REAL!
In Hungary there is no Halloween, but there is All Souls Day (early November) when people go to the graves of their ancestors to clean the stones (or right the posts), leave flowers, but also REMEMBER their friends and family who have gone before them.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
LUCA'S DAY FOLK CUSTOMS DECEMBER 13th...
FELIX has made a great effort to inform us about LUCA'S DAY FOLK CUSTOMS... December 13th is the Holiday in Hungary... so go ahead and click on the title above to read what he has to say!