IN PEASANT HUNGARY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1939, Page 9

IN PEASANT HUNGARY

PAGAN CUSTOMS ENDURE The customs and superstitions connected with Midsummer Day and Eve in Hungary date back to the earliest pagan times, writes the Budapest correspondent of the “Observer,” London. A few of these still persist in a modified form in some of the villages. In the Murakoz the girls give the young men bouquets on Midsummer night, and receive coloured ribbons in return. In Gocscj the girls make wreaths of flowers, in which each flower symbolises a member of the family. The wreaths are then carefully watched, as the flowers which fade the quickest signal illness or death to those members of the family within a year. In Szabadka. the Midsummer (or St. John’s) wreath is boiled, and the faces of sick people are washed with the water. In a village in the country of Post a wreath is hung on the horns of each cow before it is driven to pasture; the cow which brings the wreath home intact at the end of the day is regarded as the best. In the country of Somogy the young men burn dried cherry branches. On the banks of the River Tisza the peasants make bonfires, into which they throw flowers and fruit, specially a species of sweet apple which ripens at this time. When these apples are roasted they are scratched out of the fire and used as a cure of indigestion and sore throat. In sonic parts these apples are thrown into the air three times to make them, “angels’ apples” before they are given to the children. Other pretty fancies are connected with apples. Some parents who have lost a child throw an' apple Into the air so that the little one may receive a golden apple in Heaven; others put some baked apples on the child’s grave. Another superstition has it that the mother of a dead child may not eat an apple before Midsummer Day, because St. John distributes apples among the children in Heaven, and the child whose mother has eaten an apple that year will be obliged to go without.

The belief that on Midsummer’ Night the earth shows its hidden treasures may still be found among the very old and illiterate. In the country of Gyor it was the custom to roll a burning wheel near the cemetery, as it was believed that when the wheel stopped the gold in the earth would burn. On Midsummer Night the golden bracken is supposed to bloom, and it will become a magician and understand the language of the animals. Another belief, held even now, is that the treasure of Darius lies where the first ray of sunlight falls after Midsummer Night.

One of the daily papers gives an interesting account of the pagan rites connected with fire, which were practised on Midsummer night up to the nineteenth century. On that night a fire was put out by the chief judge of a pagan tribe, and a new fire.,was lit by the difficult method of pushing an ash-rod through the nave of a nine-spoked wheel and rubbing' it till it caught fire. / / With this so-called “new fire” the pagans lit bonfires, round which the girls danced and jumped through the flames. Sheep and cattle were also driven through the flames to protect them from pests. When this rite was discontinued the practice of making a fire from straw and herbs on Midsummer’ Night persisted in many parts of the country, as the smoke was believed to chase away dragons and witches who poisoned the wells. In some villages the peasants carried burning embers round their fields to ensure a good harvest.