A Fun Easter Tradition

This week in our Hungarian class and in our Hungarian conversation club, we learned about a fun Hungarian Easter custom called "sprinkling." On the Monday after Easter, which is a holiday here in Hungary, the young men in the villages throw water on the young (and sometimes not-so-young) ladies. It goes something like this: a friend or relative of a young lady goes to her house and recites a little poem about the flowers needing water. The poem ends with "may I water (you)?" It's not allowed for a young lady to answer "no." She always needs to answer "yes." Then, often with the help of his friends, he tosses a bucket of water on her.
The young lady then gives the young man a decorated egg, a dessert, and/or a drink. In the cities, the tradition is slightly different. Instead of dousing the young ladies with buckets of water, the young men spray the young ladies' hair with perfume. The young men still must recite a poem first and the young ladies give them gifts which also might include chocolate.

The discussions we had about the tradition were interesting. The young ladies generally were not too thrilled about the practice whereas the young men enjoyed it. One young lady said her dad would wake her up on Easter Monday by squirting water from a bottle on her! Another young lady said that the worst part for her was that her hair smelled so bad by the end of the day because all the young men used cheap perfume to spray her with!

What a tradition! I guess Easter egg hunts are not all you can do for fun at Easter time.

We wish all of you a very blessed Easter. How we thank our Father for sending Jesus to die for our sins and then raise Him from the dead so that we might have everlasting life through Him!