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Hungarian Christmas
In Hungary, celebrations begin with Christmas tree decoration and gift packaging during daytime od 24th December, then comes a family dinner with traditional Christmas meals, and in the evening (Christmas Eve, in Hungarian: Szenteste) the Little (Baby) Jesus (Hungarian: Kisjezus or Jezuska) delivers the presents. This is the most intimate moment of Christmas, featuring warmly lit Xmas tree and candles, soft Xmas music, family singing of religious songs and gift pack openings.
NOTE: in Hungary (and equally in Czech Republic and Slovakia), Santa Claus (Hungarian: Mikulas, Czech: Mikulas, Slovak: Mikulas) has nothing to do with Christmas. He visits families earlier, in the dawn of 6th December, and puts candy-bags for the well-behaving children (to be put in their polished shoes they put in the windows previous evening). Hungarian Mikulas never parks his sleigh on roofs and never climbs chimneys, but is usually accompanied by a diabolic-looking servant named Krampusz (in Czech and Slovak regions he is simply "cert", i.e. devil, without any name) who gives birches for kids behaving bad.[5]
The holiday season starts with Advent in Hungary, too. Advent wreaths can be seen in stores, schools, offices, and in almost every home. This time of year is the preparation for Christmas. Candles are decorated with red and gold ribbons symbolizing life and brightness. Most children get Advent calendars with a small gift or candie for every day before Christmas. Lights and decoration however stay inside the houses - streets and houses are not as spectacular there as they are in the US. Also, we never decorate a tree before the Holy night.
Christmas trees can be seen during advent only in stores symbolizing holiday shopping.
We decorate trees on the holy night in immediate families. Christmas is a private, family holiday in Hungary, we don't go to parties. Most families decorate the tree together, but some families keep the older tradition that tree should be a surprise for chidren who even believe it was bought by angels. When I was a child I so truly believed it that I SAW angels flying around with small trees in their hands. Children enter the room only when the small tree bells ring and music arises. Gifts lay around the tree with small labels saying the name of someone in the family. Family-members sing Christmas songs together, then open their gifts and spend the night together.The menu for Christmas night is usually fish or cabbage with the special poppy-bread called "beigli." Christmas is a 2-day holiday here, we are proud that it was 2-day holiday even during communism. This was actually the only thing we could gain from our lost 1956 war. In the 2 days of Christmas big families meet, often travelling to another town, or maybe very close friends visit each other. But these days are private days of our rush lives. We stop for 2 days and turn to people we love the most. Christmas is the holiday of love and heart.
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