The Hungarian name for New Year's Eve is Szilveszter (Sylvester) after the name day (Every name has a special day assigned to it so people celebrate their name day as well as their birthday). This day usually is a workday. After working people prepare for the night. They spend the last night of the year with their friends having a good time. The traditional dishes of this night are cold pork in aspic, wienerwurst with horseradish or mustard and poppy-seed and nut roll which remained from Christmas, after midnight roast pig. In the morning after a heavy drinking they eat cabbage soup. At midnight people open their champagne and stand up and sing the Hungarian national anthem. (This begins as a prayer: 'God bless Hungarians with high spirits and wealth...') After that on the New Year's Day people greet together with BUEK, (Boldog Új Évet Kivánok) that means 'Happy New Year'.

So how did we spend New Year's Eve? The Shalom Open Bible Church here in Debrecen had a special meeting. About 18 of us gathered at 8 pm in the church fellowship/kitchen area. We began with some worship and sharing from the Word of God. This was followed by food, lots of it and plenty of fantastic desserts. After everyone was finished eating we played games. We divided into teams and played a sort of Bible trivia pursuit, which was difficult for Nancy and me because it was entirely in Hungarian. We did participate and were able to help answer some of the questions. It was good practice for us.

At midnight everyone stood as they sang the Hungarian national anthem, then they had Nancy and me sing the American national anthem (don't ask us to open any baseball games). This was followed by everyone greeting each other with a kiss on both cheeks and saying "Boldog Új Évet Kivánok".

Nancy and I left shortly after that and on the walk home we could hear many, many people out in the streets cheering and having fun with their neighbors and friends. We could also see the many fireworks going off in each neighborhood. It seemed that just about every block had someone who was setting off fireworks, and I'm not talking just firecrackers or little bottle rockets. These were some pretty large rockets. The night was cold and cloudy and you could see the sky lit up with mini explosions all over the city. It was pretty, but I couldn't help but think that this may be what a war zone might look like during a night-time raid with the explosions and flashes of light.

We did make it home safely having thoroughly enjoyed our first New Year's celebration in Hungary, and are planning on doing absolutely nothing today. We do pray that 2009 will bring you deeper in your understanding and experience of God's love (Eph. 3:17-19).