Tribes and Tongues

  Easter Monday we had the fun experience of "getting outta Dodge" and going on our first road trip since being in country.  Bundling up and climbing in the van with a bunch of other fun people early in the morning & off we went! (This spring has been unseasonably cold and rainy - and that day in particular unbearably cold). Easter Monday is a national holiday here and many events were happening all over the country.  Ladies were promptly sprayed with perfume by the men - an Easter Monday tradition.

  We arrived at Opusztaszer about 45 minutes later (this is considered a really long drive!).  From the step out of the van it was clearly a different place.  This is the spot over a thousand years ago that the main tribes of a large area came together to sign a treaty of strength and form a nation. The nation is now know to most of the world as Hungary. Here it is Magyarorzsag.  Each of these different yurts represent a different tribe by the insignia at the top. Pictured are only a few of them. It was lovely to see these representations of different people standing in sillouette against the blue sky on this crisp day. You could feel the power and the strength of these people, uniting together to protect themselves against other marauders.

  There is also a 120 meter long canvas that is painted of different scenes when Arpad and his men first came to settle in Hungary. It is painted so well, you cannot tell where the actual rocks and trees in the front, used as props ends and the painting begins!

  This day, there were special dancers, people dressed in traditional dress as they would have been 200+  years ago, and there is a village that has been put together from historical buildings from all over the nation which shows life and culture as it used to be. The only thing missing out of it all was God - which is surprising considering that this is a nation priding itself on King Stephen (Istvan) dedicating Hungary to the Roman Catholic church. Maybe villages weren't willing to send off an older church to this heritage site, I don't know. I just know there wasn't one there that I observed. There were a lot of Hungarian people who were enjoying exploring some of their "roots" after making this long trek from where they lived. Another tradition (that is now only spraying of perfume) displayed in the historical village was that of literally dousing young women with buckets or containers of water on Easter Monday - harkening back to the pagan days in wanting the women to be fertile and this was a "blessing", so to speak... I will take the perfume, I think.  Especially after seeing the young lady who had been doused with buckets of cold water on a chilly morning in a chilly house run off to get changed!  Dryers weren't available back then. If you were soaked, would you have had enough clothes that were dry to change into? Lots and lots of petticoats were under those wet skirts.

  I am looking forward to coming back - to see the demonstrations later in the year - horsemen display their feats as well as the archery exhibitions and many more.