Patapoklos - Regional house with basket-arched porch and parapets. The street façade has a truncated hip.

Hungarian folk architecture is unique.  The author explains some of the special characteristics that distinguish it from the folk architecture of other countries.

There are so many different New Year’s customs in Hungary that one has a hard time deciding which ones to mention!

An early poster

One of Lehár Ferenc’s best known operettas, presenting the problem of  East meeting West – through the love of a European countess and a Chinese ambassador – was performed in China for the first time this past November.

To say good bye to the old year and welcome the new is a very important event, and many traditions and superstitions are attached to it.  One of them concerns what we eat on New Year Day. 

The “New Year Piglet” looks forward into the future with his snout.  In Hungary it is consumed in a form of “virsli” (frankfurter).

Cabbage symbolizes a roll of money; the round legumes, beans, lentils and peas represent plenty of money, food, health, etc…

Some foods are strictly forbidden to eat on New Year’s Day: poultry will fly away, game run away with our luck.

Here is a soup recipe that contains pork, cabbage and beans.

Bicsérdy Béla

A hundred years ago, a revenue officer-turned-health-guru drew a large following in  Transylvania and Hungary with his promotion of a raw vegan lifestyle.