The presenter of this year’s last alumni webinar was Gergely Fazekas, who is a musicologist and an associate professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. He held a fantastic and deeply engaging presentation, where participants could learn a lot about the traditions as well as the current trends of Hungarian music from the early Middle Ages to the contemporaries, including world-famous composers such as Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, György Ligeti or György Kurtág. We asked him about his motivation for being a musicologist and a teacher as well as about the peculiarities of Hungarian music.
Each year Santa Claus, or in Hungarian, the Mikulás traditionally visits the homes of Hungarian children the night before Santa Claus Day on 6 December and leaves various tasty treats in their shoes. It is a nice custom that children love, here you can read the story of this more than hundred-year-old tradition.
Each year the Cake of Hungary competition is organized by Hungarian Confectionery Industry Association on the occasion of the national holiday, August 20th, the day on which Saint Stephen founded Hungary. It is a popular tradition to celebrate the most talented Hungarian confectioners and promote culinary innovation. This year the cake “Naughty Plum Prince” has been the winner of the contest.
In Hungary and most European countries, spring is when we celebrate one of the most important Christian holidays - Easter. It is not on a fixed date, but held every year based on the following agreement of the church: “Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (21 March).” This year Easter falls on the 18th of April.
Known locally as “farsang”, Hungary has multiple unique traditions in February when it comes to costumes and celebrations. In our next article we have collected everything you need to know and some tips as well, if you want to join the festivities!