How do Hun­gar­i­ans liv­ing in the States cel­e­brate Easter?

East­er is cel­e­brat­ed world­wide, every nation has its own tra­di­tions and cus­toms. But what about those who moved abroad? In our arti­cle, you can read about the ways Hun­gar­i­ans cel­e­brate East­er in the States. 

777​.hu has asked Hun­gar­i­an fam­i­lies liv­ing in the States to tell the read­ers how they cel­e­brate East­er on the east coast of the USA. East­er egg hunt and East­er parade In the city parks, a so-called east­er egg hunt takes place.

As part of the fun game, you can search for thou­sands of choco­late eggs. Usu­al­ly, par­ents with small chil­dren par­tic­i­pate in this East­er activ­i­ty. In New York, on East­er Sun­day, the “East­er Parade” is held, which is actu­al­ly a parade of women’s hats on Fifth Avenue. 

In 1948, the movie East­er parade was made with Fred Aster, Judy Gar­land, Ann Miller and Peter Law­ford in the main roles, which is shown over and over again every East­er on US TV chan­nels. To the joy of the lit­tle ones, shops are packed with choco­late bun­nies, eggs and chicks, already weeks before the holidays. 

Good Fri­day and East­er Mon­day are work­ing days, but many peo­ple do not work on the for­mer, espe­cial­ly mem­bers of the Span­ish com­mu­ni­ty, but oth­er Catholics also take a day off. Many Catholic Hun­gar­i­an fam­i­lies are fasting.

The fam­i­ly of 20-year-old Kriszti­na Fodor, orig­i­nal­ly from Tran­syl­va­nia but liv­ing in New York City, refrains from eat­ing meat dur­ing the entire fast and pre­pares fish instead. Accord­ing to a father of three: 

“East­er is very impor­tant to us, also because of folk tra­di­tion, but main­ly because of reli­gion. We try to raise our chil­dren the way our par­ents raised us. It is one of the most impor­tant days in the Catholic cal­en­dar, and every­one here knows why, and we give thanks for it.”

For the old­er gen­er­a­tion, spir­i­tu­al prepa­ra­tion before East­er can­not be forgotten. 

Uncle Laci Németh-Hajdú, who moved from Hun­gary to New Brunswick when he was a child, and his wife Irén, for exam­ple, reg­u­lar­ly watch the Hun­gar­i­an Great Lent pro­gramme on kato​likus​.hu.

The Holy Week cer­e­monies are the same in all Hun­gar­i­an church­es in the States Hun­gar­i­ans liv­ing in the US can cel­e­brate East­er the same way as they would in Hun­gary, the cer­e­monies are vir­tu­al­ly identical. 

There is a pro­ces­sion on Palm Sun­day and a cel­e­bra­tion of the Blessed Sacra­ment on Maun­dy Thurs­day. Over­seas, reli­gious peo­ple also cel­e­brate the Way of the Cross on Good Fri­day, and attend a Mass of the Res­ur­rec­tion on Holy Sat­ur­day, with the con­se­cra­tion of water and fire, read­ings and processions. 

Final­ly, there is a mass on East­er Sun­day with food con­se­cra­tion. How­ev­er, there are some minor dif­fer­ences in the church­es. In New Brunswick, the Pas­sion is sung, but in New York, it is no longer pre­sent­ed at all.

On Maun­dy Thurs­day in Pas­sa­ic, the priest used to wash the feet of 12 peo­ple, but this cus­tom has dis­con­tin­ued about 40 – 50 years ago.

Source: dai​lynew​shun​gary​.com