Easter Monday, "Sprinkling" the Women

Zöld erdőben jártam
Kék ibolyát láttam
El akart hervadni
Szabad-e locsolni?

Locsolkodás after the Easter Monday church service

Today I was immersed, quite literally, in a Hungarian Easter custom: Locsolkodás. The word means sprinkling and it's a folk tradition practiced on Monday, which is considered the second day of Easter. Basically, it goes like this: boys visit girls in their homes. They recite a verse (like the one below), then spritz some perfume on them. The girls then reward them with chocolate, eggs painted bright red, or pálinka, a fruit brandy. Traditionally, in place of perfume, the boys doused the girls with buckets of water. I'm glad the tradition's evolved to perfume (though not always--I started my morning by being lured into the kitchen and doused with a cup full of water. The culprit, a friend of mine, got wetter coming over to my house in the pouring rain than I did, though!)

Everywhere I went today (and it was a busy day--with two church services and visits to four different homes), there were people partaking in the tradition. The most priceless was three little boys, aged 5-13, who recited a poem for me when I came to visit and then all took turns spritzing me with perfume.

By the end of the day, I'd been sprayed with generous amounts of perfume six or seven times--and, as you can imagine, with the different scents mixing together, I was eager to take a shower! But it was a fun tradition, and I'm glad I got to share in it.

Another highlight from the day was an Easter Monday service in a lovely little (seating room for 18, max.) church with no electricity in a nearby village. Probably what brought the biggest smile to my face was paying another visit to the family I mentioned in my last blog post. They had invited me back again today, and apparently the kids kept asking when I was going to arrive. I had fun playing some little games with them, and they taught me some Roma dancing! It was amazing to see their little feet move, especially the youngest, who's a tiny little guy, but quite the little dancer!

It's definitely been a memorable Easter here in Hungary!

P.S. The poem at the beginning of this post is basically about walking in the woods, seeing "Blue Violet," meaning the flower but also referring to a girl's name, and asking permission to "sprinkle" her to keep her from wilting.