The Christmas Tree
Hungarians buy the Christmas tree some days or weeks before Christmas. (Some brave people buy it on the 24th but usually it is possible to get a tree from around the end of November.) People decorate the Christmas tree on 24th December. There might be a few families who prefer to decorate it earlier but it is usual to wait until the 24th. (Of course shopping malls and offices buy Christmas trees at the beginning of November and keep it as a decoration.) Sometimes you can see Christmas trees hanging outside of windows or on balconies wrapped up in plastic or tied around with ropes. The reason for this is that people keep the tree in a cold place before they decorate it on the 24th.
Usual Christmas tree decorations are:
- karácsonyfadísz/karácsonyi (üveg)gömb (bauble - glass or plastic)
- (karácsonyi) csúcsdísz (tree top decoration - glass is very popular, but ribbons are cheaper so shopping malls use it, stars are also getting into fashion, but red stars have a negative conotation in Hungary)
- szaloncukor ("saloon/parlour candy" see the post about Mikulás concerning this candy)
- habcsók/habkarika (meringue)
- mézeskalács (gingerbread)
- csillagszóró (sparkler)
- karácsonyfadísz boa (tinsel garland)
- gyertyák (candles. As many trees and sometimes curtains catch fire at and around Christmas candles are getting a bit out of fashion. Usually it is on the news how many times the firemen have been alarmed because of Christmas tree fires)
- karácsonyi izzófüzér/karácsonfa füzér/karácsonyi égősor/karácsonyfa izzósor (Christmas lights, light garland, for example LED, this is safer and more popular than candles)
- all sort of other stuff depending on the current trend dictated by shopping malls
How to dispose of the tree? The traditional day to undecorate the tree is 6th January (Epiphany). However some people choose to get rid of the tree earlier. Properly disposing of the Christmas tree is a problematic point. People very often leave it on the streets here and there. Next to the garbage container (leaving the tree next to the garbage container is okay, if you do it at the right time). But some people put their tree into parks or playgrounds. You can often see skeletons of trees lying in the streets of Budapest after Christmas. A sad sight indeed. Some people throw their tree out of the window. So watch out for falling trees when you roam the streets of Budapest after Christmas. A nice way of disposing of the tree can be composting it if you have a garden, or making firewood out of it, or to taking it to collecting places on the designated days. http://www.fkf.hu/portal/page/portal/fkf/Hirszerk/Feny%C5%91fa%20elsz%C3%A1ll%C3%ADt%C3%A1s%20a%20kar%C3%A1csonyi%20%C3%BCnnepek%20ut%C3%A1n (This is the website of the company that collects the trees, unfortunately information about collecting places in Budapest is only available in Hungarian. If you click on the orange coloured text "A kijelölt gyűjtőhelyek listája..." you will find the list.)
24th December - Not a bank holiday. Many people work on this day. Sometimes working days are rearranged countrywise before Christmas (people work on a Saturday) in order to have a day off on the 24th.
Hungarians give presents to each other in the evening. Officially it is the baby Jesus (Jézuska) who brings the presents, sometimes he is aided by angels. Religious families go to church before or after exchanging presents (to the evening mass, where usually a nativity play or Christmas concert can be watched, or to the midnight mass)
Even some of those families who otherwise don't go to church attend church around this time. (Although I don't know what exact percentage of the entire Hungarian population attends church at Christmas. I don't want to generalise.) The midnight mass is popular in this sense. I don't know about other families but in my family the 24th is Christmas celebration with just the closest family members.
25th December - Bank holiday. Relatives visit each other, give presents to each other, eating eating eating, drinking drinking etc. It's also possible to go to church on this day.
26th December - Bank holiday. Relatives visit each other, give presents to each other, further eating and drinking, a lot of people have a stomachache by this time :) It's also possible to go to church on this day.
Typical food:
hal - fish (fried in bread crumbs, or as a halászlé soup or in any other form) Fish represents Jesus. (google ichthys or ikthus if you need more info on this) As for fish fresh water carp is very popular, people like to buy it alive. So you can see lines of people at marketplaces or in hypermarkets standing in front of water tanks containing incredible amounts of live carp jammed together Some people buy cheaper frozen fish, or frozen sea fish (as Hungary doesn't have a sea we don't really differenciate between types of sea fish. Frozen fish packages sometimes don't have a description about the species, they are just called sea fish.
töltöttkáposzta - stuffed cabbage
kocsonya - meat jelly/pork jelly (this is not definitely eaten at Christmas, it is rather prepared around Christmas and eaten during the winter holidays or any time in winter) It is usually made of piglegs, and skin, sometimes pig ears and tails and heart. For foreigners this can be quite shocking. Some people put boiled eggs and vegetables also into the jelly. It is also not unusual to sprinkle the top of the jelly with some paprika powder. Kocsonya is so popular that each winter there is a kocsonya festival held in Miskolc. http://www.kocsonyafesztival.hu/
mézeskalács - gingerbread Actually it is possible to prepare it without ginger. The chief ingredient is honey. Cinnamon is also very important. We decorate it with icing. It is not only for the Christmas tree but just for eating.
habcsók - meringue I personally don't like it because it is too sweet. And it's just protein and carbohydrate and the ones you can get in shops don't even taste good. But tastes differ. This is definitely the thing that lasts the longest from all the Christmas sweets. We still have it weeks after Christmas. It doesn't go off easily when it's dried and no-one really likes it in my family. But it looks cute on the tree.
bejgli - it's a kind of sweet roll filled with walnut or poppy seeds.
hókifli - literally "snow crescent" . These are sweet little crescents sprinkled with castor sugar. They are easy to make and it's also easy to eat big quantities of it. Some people prepare it with some kind of filling (like walnut, or chestnut cream).
forraltbor - mulled wine This is not a special Christmas drink. It is drunk in the winter. I listed it here because you can always buy it at Christmas markets.
It is either red wine or white wine. There are different versions of it. I like it from white wine with cinnamon (fahéj) , cloves (szegfűszeg) (neither of them powdered) and sugar. Usually mulled wine is made of not so good quality wine whose taste can be improved with the spices and sugar.
There might be many many other things I have forgotten about. These were just a few that came to my mind. There is a new trend nowadays that people should eat healthy food during the holidays. Thus the traditional meals are sometimes replaced by "lighter" meals prepared from chicken or turkey breast and salad. And muffins are also gathering popularity (not just for the holidays, but in general).
Other things that belong to Christmas
Karácsonyi vásárok - Christmas markets - They have become popular recently. But usually they are very expensive. The one in Vörösmarthy tér is very famous but it is really expensive and it's rather for tourists. Other districts of Budapest also have smaller Christmas markets.
Andrássy út kivilágítása - Lights of Andrássy road - Each year the trees of Andrássy road are decorated with light garlands during November. It's very beautiful even romantic especially when it's snowing.
Temető - Cemetery - People visit their relatives around Christmas, bring winter decorations to the graves made of pine branches and cones and candles or artificial flowers. Cemeteries are open on the 25th and 26th.
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