Colorful painted Easter eggs in a basket with some bark next to it

Happy Easter!

The Easter Holidays

Easter (or also called Pascha in Aramaic, Greek and Latin) is a Christian festival and holiday which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is described in the New Testament of the holy Bible, it occurred on the third day after Christ’s burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary. It is the highest point, the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, and it is preceded by Lent which is a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penitence.

Hungary took the Roman Catholic religion around the year 1000 and it is still the main religion in our country. About two thirds of the 10 million Hungarian people are Roman Catholic officially, so Easter is one of the  biggest (religious) holidays here.

Easter Traditions and dishes in Hungary

Two of the most important traditions are the following:

  1. Girls and women make gorgeous hand-painted, colorful Easter eggs that they give to boys and men
  2. On Easter Monday boys and men water or besprinkle women with buckets of fresh water, or nowadays especially in bigger cities with perfume, so that girls and women do not wilt

Boys watering a girl dressed in traditional folk clothes at Easter in Hungary

Picture from atempo. sk

Now, let’s see what Hungarians eat during the Easter Holidays!

  • Cooked Easter Ham with boiled Eggs and Horseradish cream

Cooked ham and boiled eggs with horseradish cream which is eaten at Easter in Hungary

Picture from mindmegette. hu

  • Kalács: is a sweet kind of bread (very similar to brioche) which is usually baked in a braided form, and we eat it at other times of the year, too, but traditionally it is considered an Easter food. Nowadays kalács is made from dough and is enriched with milk and eggs.

Kalács is a sweet bread traditionally eaten at Easter in Hungary

Picture from streetkitchen. hu

Covid-19 related news of Hungary

As we have shared in our previous blog posts, Hungary is still bearing the weight of the third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. Many restrictions are still on (read more about them here: https://www.triptobudapest.hu/latest-news-info-about-freetourcommunity-com/ )

At the moment there are about 2.3 million Hungarian people that are vaccinated with the first dose and about 900 thousand who got the second dose, too. You can also browse more news about Hungary here: http://abouthungary.hu/

Due to the pandemic, at the moment we are still not operating our daily free walking tours in Budapest until further notice.

The Trip to Budapest Free Walking Tours Team wishes you health and Happy Easter Holidays!