Christmas spirit

You are already humming the catchy and melodious Christmas tunes unintendedly, while the fish is lying in the fridge without scales, and you are kneading the dough of the Christmas cake because you don’t want to leave it to the last moment; the cabbage also must be here somewhere, and a part of the gifts that is lying around you hasn’t been packed yet, while the other part is still in the shops, though you promised yourself that this year would be different… Hey, stop for a moment! What about relaxing? And what about the cozy moments that films, adverts and postcards propagate?

Berki Viola - Karácsony - Thorma János Múzeum, CC BY-NC-ND Has the gingerbread become hard like concrete? Do you have to exchange a bulb on the light garland but your nails have frayed? Have you carved the tree into the stand slantwise? Let them go! They don’t matter now. Just sit down for a moment amidst the big rush, relax a bit and care for each other. And above all, don’t worry about all kinds of trifles. Enjoy the feast and have at least a little bit of good time.

Have a look at our Christmas collection for a start:

The Digital Collections Department of MaNDA wishes you happy holidays!

Recommendation

Winter feasts and traditions

This week we look at the winter repertoire of folk food culture. The cold season, festive and religious customs limited the food choices and, in this context, food as magical objects, the ritual of eating and the beliefs associated with it were of particular importance. It also reveals how the traditional Christmas dishes of today (fish soup, stuffed cabbage, poppy-seed and walnut roll cake “bejgli”) were brought to the table of our ancestors.

Gone-by New Year’s Eves

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Hungarian winter expelling festival, Busó-walking of Mohács

The oldest and most famous winter expelling carnival of Hungary – called ‘busó –walking’ of Mohács – is starting today. About 800 busós and 200 maskers are going to take their farewells of winter. The ‘busó-walking’ is a world-famous folk tradition of the Sokác (Croatian: Šokci) population in Mohács. The winter expelling and spring welcoming tradition can be found in the mythological world of other countries as well. It belongs to the family of protecting and fertility spell feasts.

Legend of the Christmas tree

The resin scent of the Christmas tree and the stinging pine needles during decoration are determinant memories of our childhood. In the 1990s, plastic pines spread and nowadays there are different environmentally friendly creative solutions to replace pine trees with branches and pallets. However, the classical sawn trees or the living pines are the most popular. In our virtual exhibition, we are going to find out why the pine tree became the indispensable accessory of Christmas.

For Saint Nicholas day

The Hungarian name Miklós (and the English Nicholas) comes from the Greek name Nikolaos, its original meaning: triumph + people. Its registered versions separated from the ancient Hungarian nickname: Miksa, Mike, Mikes, Mikó and Nikolasz that was taken from English. Miklós was the 87th most frequented male name in Hungary in 2022. 118 children got it as a first name.

The story of ice-cream

Although ice-cream is thought to be a typical Italian dessert, it originates from China. But in those times, it was rather like sorbets today, made of ice and fruits. It had an adventurous journey to Europe, but borderlines could not stop its spreading, and its popularity is still unbroken. Nowadays, only the nominal debates around dosage can cause some puzzling. Apart from that, you can have a scoop, a ball, a lick or a spatula of it with pleasure.

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