Christmas is all around. It is the most wonderful time of the year, the time of miracles, magic, hope, solidarity, and kindness. Each nation brings in this magic its own color, aroma and bells ringing with its unique customs and traditions. Traditions in the DANUrB+ Community have strong impact on the preservation of the cultural heritage along the Danube and are one of the pillars for creating the Danube Cultural Promenade. We can see and enjoy the diversity among us, but respect and share what we have in common. Because this is the way to stay united and succeed in the achievement of our goal for regional and local resilience. 

Our DANUrB+ Christmas catalogue will start with the Traditions in Hungary!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Boldog Karácsonyt

Sretan Božić

Весела Коледа

Срећан Божић

Crăciun Fericit

Veselé Vianoce 

In Hungary, the countdown to Christmas is marked by traditional advent wreaths. These beautiful holiday centerpieces feature four candles, representing faith, hope, joy, and love, nestled in a bed of pine branches and ribbon. A candle is lit each Sunday leading up to Christmas.

St. Nicholas visits Hungary on December 6th. In Hungary, he is known as “Mikulás”. Children leave out shoes or boots on a windowsill to be filled with goodies (usually candy, chocolate bars, and oranges).

Christmas Eve is especially important in Hungary and is called “Szenteste” which means Holy Night. People spend the evening with their family and decorate the Christmas tree.

Sometimes only the adults decorate the tree (without the children there), so when children come in and see the tree, it is a great surprise, and they are told that angels brought the tree for them!

On Christmas Eve children also hope that they will be left some presents under the Christmas tree.

They are told that the presents are brought by Jesus, he is often called "Jézuska", a nickname for Jesus.

The main Christmas meal, which is also eaten on Christmas Eve, consists of fish soup called “halászlé”, stuffed cabbage (the cabbage leaves are stuffed with rice, ground pork, onion, garlic, and various aromatic herbs), and a special kind of poppy seed cake called “bejgli” is a popular dessert.

Photo: Poppyseed and walnut filling roll (bejgli); Source: Wikimedia Commons 

On Christmas Day Hungarians visit their families.                                                                                                                

In Hungarian Merry Christmas is “Boldog Karácsonyt!”

Photo: Fisherman’s Soup á la Baja (bajai halászlé), Hungary; Source: Gábor Nagy

Recipe

Fisherman’s soup (Halászlé).

Ingredients:

• 2 whole fish, approximately 2 lb each (carp, catfish, perch, or pike).

Have your fishmonger gut the fish, fillet them keeping the skin on, and give you the head, tail, and fishbone along with the fillets. The skin is traditionally left on, as the glossy, smooth consistency it gets when cooked is a desired element in the dish. If preferred, remove the skin;

• 2 onions;
• 1 large tomato;
• 4 tbsp ground paprika powder (either sweet or hot, depending on preference);
• 1 whole hot paprika;
• salt, black pepper.

How to prepare it:

• Remove the larger bones and cut the fillets into 1-inch cube pieces, refrigerate until needed;
• With a small amount of vegetable oil, sauté finely chopped onions until they turn soft and glossy;
• Add 2-3 liters of water. Add the head, tail, fins, and fishbone, with bits of meat hanging on;
• Add half the paprika powder, the hot paprika, and salt. Simmer on medium heat for 1 hour;
• When the broth is ready, pour it through a colander into another pot and reserve the broth;
• Discard the head, tail, and skeleton after picking the tender pieces of meat off the bones;
• Press the onions and bits of meat that are left in the colander through a mesh colander;
• Add this essence of ingredients back into the reserved broth and bring it back to boil. Once boiling, add the fillets, the rest of the paprika powder, and the peeled tomato;
• Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes till the fillets are soft and flaky. Add salt to taste.