Europäische Weihnacht – in Vielfalt geeint - Sutter GmbH & Co. KG

dann waren es Sinti und Roma, die auf diese traditionelle
Weise ein Almosen für ihre Familie
erbeten haben.
Christmas and New Year’s Greeting:
“Kellemes karacsonyi uennepeket
es boldog ujevet!” (Hungarian)
“Bachtalo krecunu thaj bachtalo
nevo bers!” (Romany)
There are no prizes for guessing who is behind the
name of St. Mikolás in Hungary: Saint Nicholas of
course, who here just as everywhere else celebrates his
name-day on December 06 and brings gifts to children
who behaved well – and by the way, the gifts
are not put into their stockings, but into the recently
polished boots of the little ones. His counterpart, the
horrid devil who punishes children who behaved
badly or at least scares the living daylight out of
them, has a totally different name in Hungarian to
our Ruprecht in Germany, to wit Krampusz – still a
name equally to be feared. If St. Mikolás delegates
the filling of the boots to Krampusz, then more often
than not there are rotten potatoes, pebble stones and
wood shavings to be found; a sign that the behaviour
of the recipient of such ‘gifts’ left plenty to be desired for.
Ungarn/Hungary
Hungary holds a very special century-old tradition
(as do the jCzech Republic and jSlovakia) during
the days before Christmas: the presentation of highly
impressive pastoral plays. Their plot is based naturally
on the Christmas story, the centre of which,
however, are not the Three Wise Men, but simple
people, the shepherds. They tend to be three rather
rough fellows who sleep with their sheep in the field
until they are awoken by the angel. This angel is
usually played by a blond-haired child. The angel
instructs them to follow the star which it carries high
above their heads in front of them on a rod. This
leads them to the crib with the Jesus-child, to which
the shepherds extend the gift of a sheepskin. During
this procession, the shepherds wear their sheepskins
inside out, thus looking like sheep. They tease the
children in the audience and distribute candy at the
end of the play.
A sort of miniature version of these pastoral plays
has established itself in the big cities. Here, beggars
with self-made nativity scenes pass from door to
door, with the Jesus-child, Maria and Joseph and all
other classic characters of a nativity scene, performing
what happened in Bethlehem as a small puppet
show. When at the end the Christmas greeting is
not “Kellemes karacsonyi uennepeket es boldog ujevet!”
but rather “Bachtalo krecunu thaj bachtalo nevo
bers!”, it were the Sinti and Roma who requested
alms in this manner for their family.
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