This post was inspired by Kris. She posted yesterday about a flower store too and she mentioned that children were learning how to celebrate Halloween in Hungary lately. Its really like this...but somehow I feel something strange about this Halloween stuff.
When I was child until 1989 we celebrated 7th of November as the anniversary of the great soviet revolution which has started on this day in 1917 in Saint-Petersburg (Russia). I do not doubt that it was (is) an important event for Russia but has obviously nothing to do with Hungary...
Nowdays we do not celebrate 7th of November. Moscow is not a "big brother" anymore we have to follow. Buuuut...we started to celebrate strange events I never heard about .....before. Valentine's day and Halloween. Now it is rather for commercial then political reasons but still has nothing to do with the local culture and traditions here.
Dont get me wrong..I dont mind Valentine's neither Halloween...they are very nice, "exotic" events to me. Even I dont mind 7th of November in Russia. But I dont like this attitude copying some cultures which we find "fancy" at a certain moment. What is going to be the next one? Will we celebrate Chinese New Year in 10 years pretending it is something we always celebrated just because soon China will be the "leading country"?:)
13 comments:
Kalimera (Goodmorning),
I like a lot your post.All this flowers and the halloween face are very interesting.
I agree totaly with you about the tradition.Each country and place has his own customs I don't understand why we have to copy them.I am sure that except from the economical reasons they are political reasons too.
I will tell you something that you don't know : Greece it is a navy country so at the past we didn't have Christmas tree for celebrate the Christmas, but a big wooden ship with many lights and colours.Nowadays the Christmas tree has replaced this ship.
back home the main celebration for me & family is Chinese New Year. The rest of the festivities depended on if I want to partake in them or not.
Any celebration is fine with me so long as it is not over done and true reason is not lost in commercialisation.
Tres belle photo avec un superbe epouvantail digne du film le magicien d'oz.
Halloween marche t-il en hongrie ?
En france, cela commence a etre moins feter.
Very beautiful photograph with a superb scarecrow worthy of film the magician of OZ. Is Hallowen it an important festival in Hungary? In France, that starts less has to be to celebrate.
I feel the same about Halloween in France. Anyway, do you think that these "artificial" feasts can go on for a long time?
:P
First of all, i like those small white flowers. whats the name of it? very nice!!
And about the "invading"culture, in China I am the first generation who is growing-up along the big changing in society. Um...the society is changing, and history is written by different people,accidentally or inevitably.For me, I can accept any types of culture, good parts, to share the happiness with people. Tradition is a tradition, it was developed in the history, and maybe someday it will become the part of history...:)
I think thats why most of people like to read the history stories.
And, IF someday all over the people woule celebrate the Chinese New Year, I hope that is because people like the festival itself...not some other reasons!! Anyway, festival is very nice for us to find the happiness in our life and mind...
happy Friday there!!
nice shot!!
...Jing
Very thoughtful explanation to your photo. In may mind, tradition and cultural identity is important and should be maintained while enjoying exposure to traditions from other cultures. However I have no idea what culture Halloween comes from.
thank you for the thoughtful comments.
Selana it was very interesting to read about the Greek tradition about the ship. Actually I am very interested in local traditions.
Zsolt, do you allow me to write a little thing for Jing? Just to tell her that "the little white flowers" are (in french...)chrysanthemes. Her question is a little funny because, originally, these flowers are chinese.
ohh of course Alice...and forgive me Jing..I forgot to answer your question. We also call them like Alice said...but it looks in Hungarian like this: krizantém
Usually I enjoy the flowers and I dont know their names:) But on the photo its written krizantém and Alice gave the clue, too:)
"Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland, Britain and France[1] as a pagan Celtic harvest festival. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century."Says Wikipedia.
Greetings to Denton too:)!
In Finland children are playing
a play called halloween, and I think adults are playing with them.
Russia thing is quite in different level, we could speak from it days, but not in this forum, I think.
All the best for you Zolt!
those small flower reminds me of cauliflower. oops, sorry, so irrelevant here, but i just thought of them. hehe.
you and Kris combine provide such a wonderful perspective of Hungary. I hope one day to be able to visit!
Well said. In Guatemala people have Xmas trees with fake snow. There is no snow or snow season in Guatemala. It is the tropics, you know.
Jing, the name of the flower is crisantemos in Spanish, just in case you care to know the name of the flowers in many languages... ;-)
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