How to prepare for Easter in Hungary – VIDEOS

Easter is just around the corner, and it is time to start preparing for this ancient holiday. Hungarians usually start preparing for Easter a few weeks in advance; we decorate our homes with egg trees, bunnies and chickens, we dye a bunch of eggs, and buy the necessary items before the stores run out.

[button link=”https://dailynewshungary.com/easter-hungary-origins-holiday/” type=”big” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Easter in Hungary – The origins of the holiday[/button]

Decorating eggs

The so-called hímes tojás [decorated egg] is the heart and soul of the Hungarian Easter Holiday. The egg is connected to Easter because it symbolises rebirth and resurrection.

We usually dye our eggs with bright colours either to use them as decoration or to eat them later during the holiday. If you click here, you can read our article about the most commonly used Hungarian techniques for dying and decorating your Easter eggs. It lists natural ingredients you can dye your egg with red onion and beetroot, for example, and it also details how to blow the egg out of its shell to keep it for an extended period of time as decoration.

Build a traditional egg tree (tojásfa)

An egg tree is one of the simplest and most popular Easter decorations in Hungary. It does not require any special skills to make. You can basically use any kind of tree branch (this time of the year, the most popular ones are catkin and laburnum aka. golden rain).

If there are no parks or forests nearby, you can just go to a hobby store and buy cleaned and dried branches which can be re-used as many times as you want. The branches are usually put in a nice vase or pot. Then, all you have to do is get your previously decorated eggs and hang them on the branches. It is highly advised to use blown-out eggs for this decoration.