Hungarian folkways connected to illustrious days

Many-many traditions, beliefs and folkways can be connected to the illustrious days of the Hungarian rustic life and celebrations. Illustrious days are usually connected to saints or the life of Jesus, but in this article, we collected the folkway relations of some of these days. The aims of these traditions were usually dual: to guarantee the richness of the crops or the health and wealth of a community, and to guarantee the periodic commemoration of the celebrations. These beliefs are gestures and rituals that evolved with time and they are usually joined with sayings or spells because people truly believed in the magic of pronounced words.

21^st of January: Magic on Ágnes Day – People collect the pieces of manure that fall down from the hooves of the horses, put them into the hen house so that the hens will lay many eggs and later cover the eggs well.

19^th of February: Zsuzsanna Day – If the lark flies high up in the air on this day, it means that warm weather is right around the corner. And if the lark also sings, it means that warm weather is so close that the lark welcomes it with its singing.

28^th of February: Román Day – People lay fire on the streets and jump over it to be healthy and to hopefully welcome warm weather. They warm up March with fire so that the weather won’t be cold in spring.

4^th of March: A day to pursue rats – It is the day to pursue rats out of the barn and the house since they are as snug as a bug in a rug there.

24^th of March: Gábor Day – It is the day to sow the cabbage, but you have to be careful because if the field land is far than the seeds meet with a cock and your cabbage will turn into rape.

14^th of April: The 100^th day of the year – It is time to pursue worms. People clean their houses; pursue the worms out of the house and barn. Then they take a shower and also wash the horses and cows.

2^nd of May: Zsigmond Day – It is the day to sow the cucumber because it guarantees a good harvest. But be careful when sowing, you cannot talk! If you talk, the seeds will grow sporadically. Also, if you got the seeds as a gift and you didn’t thank them, you’ll only have a weak harvest.

31^st of May: Petronella Day – If it’s a sunny day, there’s going to be rich hemp harvest. If poppy seeds are blossoming, there’s going to be bacon and fat for cooking abundantly. If the bacon is dripping, everybody knows that it’s going to rain very soon.

14^th of June: Éliás Day – If the sun is shadowed by grey clouds, it means that Éliás has arrived on his name day and he is so happy that he folds the sky with the earth with his jangle. People guard themselves against his happiness by lighting a holy candle.

13^th of July: Margit Day – If there’s a wild storm on this day, the same can be expected for the next forty days. It is also a day to foretell the harvest. If it rains, the walnuts and peanuts fall down or they’ll have worms inside.

15^th of August: Assumption Day – On this day people stay away from baking and firing in the furnace because the flames get out of the furnace and lap the walls of the kitchen. Don’t wash your hands or legs because it brings misery.

25^th of September: Gellért’s Night – It is the night for those who want to be in alliance with the devil. If you want to learn demonry and witchcraft, go to the cross-road at midnight.

21^st of October: Orsolya Day – A special day to forecast the upcoming winter’s weather. Some people believed that if the weather is nice on this day; it will be just like that until Christmas. In other regions it was the day to harvest the cabbage or the traditional day to start the grape harvest.

25^th of November: Katalin Day – Another traditional weather forecasting day: if it freezes on this day, Christmas will be rainy and if it rains on Katalin Day, Christmas will be frosty. According to another tradition, young ladies put the branch of a fruit tree into water (Katalin-twig) and if it blossoms until Christmas it means that the lady who put it into the water will get married in the next year.

3^rd of December: Ferenc Day – It is the ideal day for pigsticking because the weather is cold enough so the meat has time and chance to freeze.

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Copy editor: bm

Source: Daily News Hungary