Tag: friendship

Traditional Hungarian wedding

Hello,hello

As I mentioned a long time ago, I want to make a site where I will see the differences between nations, cultures, traditions, foods and so many other things based on my discovery. I am so excited about these “projects”, because I really love to talk to people. As you know I live in London, which is a beautiful cultural mass, so I am in the best place to do it.☺️ I hope you will enjoy reading these, just as much as I enjoyed writing them.

I am so lucky that one of my best friends is Italian and her (now) husband too. So when they invited me to attend their wedding, I felt so excited and so honored. Especially because they are one of the best couples I have ever met. Their love story and how they live their life is so inspiring.
So what’s the difference between an Italian and a Hungarian wedding? Well I have no idea where I start the list.😅 (Here I want to make a note that I love weddings and doesn’t matter where they take place, I just generally love them, so both nation’s weddings are incredibly and of course these are just general differences,due to a wedding is always based on the couple’s style.)
Let’s start with my nation’s, The “Traditional ” Hungarian wedding. The wedding starts with the groom going to the bridge’s house with all the invited people and asking the bride from her father. Live band escorts him to the house and the bride’s family offers small cakes or pastries with some drinks (of course alcohol) to the people who came to the house to see the “ceremony”. Some couples hire a ceremony master, some use the maid of honors, it really depends on the couple. (This is an old tradition, nowadays this part often will be skipped.) After that the whole crew must go to the groom’s house and ask the groom from his mother. (Again cakes, drinks, music, fun and some couples skip this part too.)
Once they have both been asked out from their parents, everyone goes to the church or the local council, it is absolutely up to the couple which will be the first place or nowdays the church wedding is not really a part of the weddings, due to not that much place in the World accepting the marriage which was only blessed by the church and not by the government. But if the couple decides to go to have both, they usually go to the church first. And that part is similiral in Italy, only they can do both the government and the church wedding in the church. Okay at this point I would like to make a note that I do not speak Italian, but I can understand a lot, so based on my “piccolo” Italian, the ceremony is quite the same, unless in Italy some guests say speeches about the couple, while in Hungary we are not allowed to do that. Shoulders must be covered in both countries in the church and that’s okay. (Another quick note that it was a christian catholic wedding- and I am christian too.)

After the ceremony in Hungary there is some rice, flowers, bubbles and whatever you want. Also there is the part where the guest is allowed to make “official” pictures with the couple, due to after the ceremony the couple usually goes to their chosen “photography place” where the official wedding pictures will be made. These pictures will be sent to the guests who were there, family members, to take as memories and the couple usually ask for an album for themselves as well.
While the couple is busy being photographed…Both countries’ weddings continue in the same way… “GO TO EAT!”🤣And trust me if I say both nation are really obsessed with the food part. The entire World knows that Italians are so into food and fashion… well Hungarian too. So you end up at the party place. It can be anywhere… restaurants, bars, cafes, fields, tents, castles, etc… anywhere where the couple like to have their wedding. This really depends on the couple, the number of attendees, the food, the type of the party or the theme of the wedding.
Once you arrive at the party place the first thing is…yes, you are right, drinks. 😅 It could be spirit, champagne, wine,etc. The most important thing is that you have to have your welcome drink.
The Continuation of the day is a bit different in each wedding, because in places you just sit down and be ready for the dinner or some couple choose to do their first dance before the meal is served or starts with some wedding games. The tradition is that the people have some cakes, talk a bit, drink a bit and once the couple arrives the dinner starts. Usually there is a siting plan, due to next to your name will be the wedding favours gift. The traditional Hungarian wedding menu includes chicken soup, which is always the start served with the vegetable and the chicken itself. Then comes the fried,baked and cooked meats/ vegetables (mostly pork, chicken and/or beef; fried mushrooms, cheese, cauliflower, etc.) with mashed potatoes, chips, rice, fresh salads, sauces, pickled onions and girkin, etc. The end comes the cakes … lots of different kinds of cakes. The menu is massive, but it is necessary otherwise you cannot drink… which is a very important part of the wedding. During the dinner, between two courses we do wedding games (it is kind of similar in Italy and the games too). The groom should take the bride’s garter with his teeth…or the quiz game where they have each other’s shoes and have to pull up the right shoe to answer the questions…the story telling game, where they involve the guests too. The ceremony master starts to tell a fairytale and each person has their own character. When you hear your character in the story you have to stand up…if you miss it or you stand up at the wrong time …well, you must drink.
After the dinner the couple danced their first dance (same in Italy) and the party officially started. The traditional music is the traditional Hungarian gypsy music from a band, but it can be a DJ too who plays the popular ’80 and ’90 songs.

A bit later the couple cut the wedding cake and the party continued with dance and drink, drink and dance until midnight… midnight they start to serve the traditional Hungarian stuffed cabbage, which is actually meatballs with cabbage…one of my favourite part of the weddings.😅 And in the meantime the couple goes and change their dresses from white to red, the symbol of that the bride is now officially a wife and a groom became a husband. Once this happens it will start the New wife dance… So traditionally the wife has to dance with all the male guests and the new husband dances with the female guest. Before the guests start their own dance with the couple they have to “pay” for this dance (the couple’s parents have a huge pot and the guests put their wedding gift- usually an envelope with money- into the pot). When everyone finished with them and paid for their dance it started another funny game. The New wife has a broom and the new husband has a dustpan. The guest throws the coins into the floor and they have to collect it all in a bucket, but the guest always continues to throw the bucket to the floor. Once all the coins are in it, the party counts until dawn. Usually the Hungarian weddings finish somewhere between 4am and 6am.
Every Hungarian has a little bit of Spitfire in them, especially if it is about a wedding 😅
Huh, I didn’t realize until I finished with how long this post is, so I will let you know about the Italian wedding in my next post which will be published very soon, I promise, so please check my Instagram, Facebook or just like the blog below the post so you will not miss anything.😘

Love all of you and I hope, I will have you all here tomorrow to see the Italians.😘

XOXO,

Krisz