{"id":1014,"date":"2019-01-08T18:28:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T17:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/?p=1014"},"modified":"2019-01-08T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T17:36:11","slug":"6-december-2018-christmas-decorations-with-a-hungarian-theme-zsuzsa-serer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/2018\/6-december-2018-christmas-decorations-with-a-hungarian-theme-zsuzsa-serer","title":{"rendered":"6 December 2018 – Christmas Decorations with a Hungarian Theme – Zsuzsa Serer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know – by the time you read this, it will be way past Christmas and New Year.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I am going to tell you about a Hungarian Christmas as delightfully related by Zsuzsa, our charming December speaker.\u00a0 You will see the reason for this if you persevere and read my article!<\/span><\/p>\n

The Christmas and <\/span>the gift-giving season starts relatively early compared to other cultures. The Santa-like figure, or Hungarian version of Saint Nicholas (Mikul\u00e1s), traditionally visits the homes of Hungarian children on the night of December 5th, the eve of Saint Nicholas Feast Day, 6th December.\u00a0 Hungarian children traditionally place a boot on their windowsill waiting for Mikul\u00e1s to come by and fill it with treats.\u00a0 There are also little red bags of chocolates, nuts, satsumas, special sweets and even a bunch of yellow sticks for naughty children as a warning to change their ways!\u00a0 During Advent, the Advent wreath is prepared and candles added weekly as in the UK.\u00a0 Zsuzsa showed us how to make such a wreath with a few willing Club helpers.\u00a0 Christmas Eve, in Hungary, is a very important day when the tree is erected and decorated before Jesus and his angels (usually someone dressed as Santa these days!) bring presents and place them under the tree.\u00a0 Only after a Christmas family lunch, are the presents opened!<\/span><\/p>\n

Why am I telling you this?\u00a0 Well, Zsuzsa is determined to ensure that her children, born and brought up in rural Essex, know about Hungarian Christmas traditions, which have persisted for centuries in her native land.\u00a0 For instance, every year she requests her grandmother to send the special little red bags and bonbons for their boots and Zsuzsa does her best to replicate the festive season of her own youth, growing up as she did in Hungary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us hope that whilst appreciating our diverse multi-cultural society, modern families still do their best to retain the special magic of Christmas and continue traditions which they remember from their youth, wherever they were born.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Duff – Chair<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I know – by the time you read this, it will be way past Christmas and New Year.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I am going to tell you about a Hungarian Christmas as delightfully related by Zsuzsa, our charming December speaker.\u00a0 You … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1018,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions\/1018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriplow.org.uk\/gardening-club\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}