Easter Monday is the Hungarian Halloween

In Hungary, as as well in many other countries, Easter's main symbol is a bunny and beautifully decorated eggs. I never understood this bunny stuff so much, especially combined with the eggs... Now I have read that it might be a mistake and the bunny was supposed to be some kind of bird... Traditions evolve. Now we have bunnies and eggs made of chocolate, bunnies lying eggs, eggs made out of bunnies. And I even discovered our Easter is like Halloween, read on to see why.

I would like to wish happy Easter to everyone with this gorgeous cartoon:

"- My ass hurts"

"- What?"

Our spooky, quite unique tradition is the "sprinkling" (locsolás) on Easter Monday. Guys pour water (today it is rather some cheap perfume) on the girls - I let everyone draw the pervert conclusions about the meaning. And girls were supposed to give back painted eggs, usually a red one to the fancied guy. Nowadays nobody paints anymore, we are lazy and busy, so we can give chocolate, or sometimes even money (some coins for the little boys).

It used to be like this                                                                   And now it is like this

Where I used to live, there were literally big gangs of boys going around, prowling around the neighbourhood for chocolate and eggs. They dressed up nice, the nicest they could, gel in the head, and rang the bell at every door. Door opens, and then, before pouring those terrible liquids on your head, they recite some - let's be euphemistic - naive poem like our most famous one "I walked in a green forest I saw a blue violet It was wilting Can I sprinkle you?" And than you say "Yes" - so they sprinkle you, and you can send them finally away by giving them some sweets.  I mean, it is like trick or treat at Halloween! Actually, I had friends whose parents switched off the doorbell Easter Monday... My mother just told me not to wash my hair the day before, since I will have to cleanse myself anyway after the perfume attack. So, if you wanna practice some poems, this video might help you:

Happy Easter guys and girls! Bakonyi Zsuzsa