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.