Rolling in Budapest Cultural information in English … Hear everything first hand

Every country has what to do, what to eat and what not to eat and do on the first day of the New Year. In Hungary, according to the Gregorian calendar, focuses on religions and folklore, on the first day of the year, lentils are the main lucky bringer, for example: “lentil soup or heavy lentil soup (lencsleves) in other words, lentil stew, lentil burgers.   Of course, this tradition is kept not only in Hungary, but also in many other countries … Spaniards, Portuguese, Cubans and the Austrians also. Now back to the the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated primarily by Chinese diasporas and other East Asian cultures as well as the Vietnamese, begin this Sunday, January, 22.2023., kicking off 15 days of festivities and customs.

While the preceding Year of the Tiger was seen as a powerful period of action, and at this time, impulse, the rabbit sign which is expected to usher in a softer period focused on self-reflection.

For example, stop cleaning today and hide your cleaning tools, otherwise you will be cleaning all year long. Wear new clothes and get rid of old ones. Today, it is not allowed to pronounce words with a negative meaning, to mention death, illness, ghosts, but even in a positive context, we avoid negative words (for example, “damn good”). It is also not recommended to mention the past year, as the purpose of the day is to bring abundance in the new year. So they say crying is also not allowed: if someone cries on the first day of the year, he will cry for the whole year, which is why the sick also get out of bed on this day.

If you decorate today, red and orange are the mandatory colors: red is the color of abundance, luck, wealth, so red flags, wall stickers, pictures, lanterns are placed everywhere to ensure the growth of the family, and next to the red decorations, the New Year an essential ingredient is orange. This is because the words “mandarin” – kam, “gold”  kam) and “sweet” sound the same in the Cantonese dialect. Because it symbolizes health and longevity, peanuts are also often found on New Year’s tables. An important New Year’s accessory is the octagonal tray, on which guests are offered eight types of snacks.All of these bring good luck: rice flour cake – kao, for example, sounds the same as “high” – kao, so it symbolizes that its consumer will move up the social ladder in the new year. For similar reasons, seaweed symbolizes enrichment, lotus seeds the bountiful blessing of children, and dried tofu (soybean cheese) symbolizes wealth and happiness. Wish to my readers a lucky Year of the Rabbit!

Overall by: Aggie Reiter