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How do Hungarians celebrate Christmas?
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Christmas is one of the greatest festivities in Hungary. Both religious and non-religious Hungarians celebrate it. It is an intimate holiday, when everybody would like to spend quality time with their family and loved ones. Of course, there are slight differences between how people in different countries celebrate Christmas. For example, presents are delivered by different religious or non-religious entities and the chain of events can also be different. Below you may read the Hungarian version.
Advent period
Advent is the preparation for Christmas in Hungary. Advent fairs open in a lot of settlements, people buy presents, light the candles one by one on the Advent wreath. This year, good news was that Budapest’s Advent Basilica has won the online vote for Europe’s best Christmas fair with a record-breaking number of votes. Religious Hungarians go to churches and prepare for the birth of Baby Jesus, the saviour of the world.
Furthermore, people buy their Christmas pine tree before Christmas Eve. It is becoming more and more popular in Hungary to decorate the Christmas tree already before Christmas Eve to save time and energy.
24 December – Christmas Eve
Religious Hungarians celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. That means they decorate a Christmas tree and put presents for each other under it. The family gathers around the tree after dark, they sing some religious Christmas songs and open the presents. Afterwards, they sit down around the beautifully decorated Christmas table to eat the Christmas dinner together while having a nice chat with family members they probably did not meet for long. It is like Thanksgiving in the USA. Non-religious Hungarians also tend to set up a Christmas tree.
In religious families, it is a trend to tell children Baby Jesus brings them the presents they get. Therefore, a lot of Hungarian children write letters or “send” drawings to the Baby Jesus about what they would like to have for Christmas in the Advent period. Interestingly, in some Hungarian communities, for example in Transylvania, in the Szeklerland, the Angel brings the gifts for the children instead of the Baby Jesus.
