The Hungarian tradition of sprinkling on Easter Monday – UPDATED

Hungary has a couple of interesting traditions that foreigners (or even younger Hungarians) might find weird. One of these is sprinkling on Easter Monday.

Even though Easter is a Christian holiday, Easter Monday traditions, including sprinkling, have no significance in the Christian church. What does sprinkling look like? – you might ask.

In the old days, girls were taken to a well or trough in the countryside and doused with buckets, which had fertility charms and also referred to the purifying properties of water.

Indeed, since this is an age-old tradition, many Hungarians do not keep it. As for those who do, the implementation has changed quite a bit. Men who still prefer to keep this convention sprinkle some perfume or cologne on girls and women instead of dousing them with buckets full of cold water (for which many of them are grateful).

In turn, men usually receive painted eggs and some hearty treats (sometimes some coins) from girls and women.