DECEMBER
The last month of the year is called the Christmas month by the Hungarian calendar.
December 4 - Borbála Day (St. Barbara). Borbála is the patron saint of single girls, so it was believed that if the cherry branch put into the water that day turned green, the girl would soon get married.
December 6 - Feast of Miklós (Bishop St. Nicholas). His reverence was established on Rye Island already as early as the time of the Árpáds, but the custom of Santa Claus walk only began in the 19th century. Santa Claus from Rye Island is a gentle, gray-bearded old man dressed as a bishop, rewarding the good children from his basket, but hitting the bad ones with a whip.
December 13 – Luca’s Day (St. Lucia). The Lucia walk was also a custom on Rye Island. Lucia could only be a man dressed in a white dress, her face covered in white flour. He walked from house to house with a broom or whitewash in his hand. He would imitate a cleaning around each member of the family to chase away all trouble and disease from them. There are numerous prohibitions attached to this day: it is forbidden to release anything from the house, nor can it be sewn so as not to sew the bottoms of the hens in.
There is a typical object: the Luca chair, which was prepared from Luca’s day until December 24th. According to tradition, it had to be made of seven kinds of trees collected from seven regions, in secret, without iron nails. The maker of the finished chair then brought it along to the midnight Mass hidden under his coat, and if he stepped on it at the moment of praesentatio Domini, he was able to see the witch of the village.
December 24 - Adam and Eve Memorial Day, which folk religion calls as Christmas fast, as on this day believers fasted until dinner, and no meat could be on the table even at dinner. The whole family sat around the table together, and the food placed on the table all symbolized the coming year. The menu consisting of lentil soup, poppy seed pasta and beans symbolized prosperity and material wealth. The Christmas Eve apple was cut to as many slices as there were members of the family. The apple eaten together provided peace and understanding among each other. After dinner, the family stayed up together, listening to the children singing (Christmas carols) under the window, and later they went to the midnight Mass together. The midnight Mass, due to its unusual timing, is associated with many beliefs. Among others, it was a favored time for love spells. It was a widespread belief that if the girls returning home from the Mass walk around the shadoof and look inside, they would see the face of their future spouse in the water of the well. On Christmas Eve, the shepherds of the village greeted the newborn Jesus playing their trumpets and snapping their whips.
December 25 - Christmas Day, the day of the birth of Jesus Christ. On this day, people used to only go to church, otherwise they didn’t leave their houses with regard to the big holiday. To preserve the family’s luck, not even relatives were visited. It was customary throughout Rye Island for the (decoratively laid) Christmas table to be only cleared after the holidays. Until then, even food leftovers were carefully preserved. They didn’t take out the trash, they didn’t even sweep it out so that luck wouldn’t be swept out of the house. After clearing the table, the leftovers and breadcrumbs were given to the animals.
The custom of a Nativity Scene (Betlehemes) is connected to Christmas on Rye Island. The four characters: the angel, the shepherd, the servant, and the old man, had already started visiting the houses in the village ten days before the holidays to tell the story of the birth and visitation.
December 26 – the Day of St. Stephen's Protomartyr. The next day, on the 27th, the church celebrates the memory of St. John the Apostle. These two days were name-day greeting occassions in folk tradition, when relatives, friends, acquaintances visited each other to celebrate.
December 28 - Feast of the Holy Innocents’. For centuries, the memory of the victims of the Herodian murders has been celebrated in folk tradition. In Rye Island, even a few decades ago, there was a great cult of whipping or caning on this day. The whipping bachelor visited the girls' houses on after the other, and after saying his greeting, he immitated whipping the girls and women of the house so that no carbuncle appears on them. In return, the girls tied a ribbon to the whip. The one who tied the most beautiful one became the first girl in the village. The bachelor's initiation was also held in several places at that time. On this day, the boy, who has just turned eighteen, was ceremoniously inaugurated as a bachelor by the lads of the village - in the presence of their foreman and the lad-calling lieutenant.
December 31 – the day of Szilveszter (Pope Saint Sylvester), New Year's Eve, the last day of the year. People from Rye island would go to church that day to thank the Lord for the year round help and ask for future patronage. It was customary to make noise, bang, ring ox bells, and snap whips.
JANUARY
The old Hungarian name of the first month of the year is Boldogasszony (Our Lady), dedicated to Virgin Mary.
January 1 - New Year's Day and feast of the Virgin Mary. This day was also called Little Christmas Day by the people of Rye Island. Great care was taken that on this day a woman would not cross the threshold of the house, and also that it should always be a man who first wishes a happy new year (to the family). Girls and women, did not go out so that luck or health would not be taken out of the house. On New Year's Day, they were only allowed to go to church. Poultry was not consumed so as it would not fly away with the luck of the house. The festive soup was cooked from pork or beef to keep the family strong and healthy all year long.
January 6 - Feast of the Epiphany, Day of the Three Kings. The walk of the three kings was a tradition on Rye Island. Three boys in white shirts visited the houses of the village at this time. They put a paper crown on their heads. One of the kings had a white face, he was for Menyh. Gaspar painted his face brown, while Boldizsár (Balthazar) symbolized Africa. They went from house to house and carried good luck. In the villages along the Danube, Epiphany was also the day of the millers. Houses are also blessed at Epiphany. The priest and his company went around the house in prayer and consecrated it with holy water and incense. After the completion of the ceremony, he wrote with chalk on the top of the door the year of consecration and the names of the three kings: e.g. 20 + G + M + B + 15. On this day, the farmer from Rye Island also observed the weather: if the eaves were dripping on this day, winter would soon be over, a good harvest is promised.
January 22 - Vince's Day (St. Vincent). Peasants watched the weather on this day and believed that if Vince’s day was nice, the weather was clear, the wine cellar would be filled with wine.
January 25 - Apostle Paul's Day of Conversion. This day is known as pálforduló on Rye Island. Religiously, it signifies the conversion of apostle Paul. According to popular interpretation, this day is about half of the winter period, meaning after this we are soon out of winter.
FEBRUARY
The second month of the year was called Böjtelő (the Pre-Fasting Month) by the ancients, as the beginning of Lent usually falls on this month. In the liturgic year, the carnival begins on January 6, at Epiphany, and ends with Ash Wednesday. In folk tradition, however, the carnival took place on the last three days of the carnival season: Carnival Sunday, Carnival Monday, and Carnival Tuesday. This was the "tail of the carnival season" the period of endless partying. The carnival was a tradition in all villages of the Rye Island, the revelry started on Sunday afternoon and only ended at midnight on Tuesday. At that time, even the bells rang to signal the beginning of the fourty-day fast. Tuesday was also called Shrove Tuesday, as after this date no meat was on the plate until Easter. In several villages (e.g. Tejfalu, Tárnok, Nagyszarva) the imitating game called Dőre walking is still a living tradition. The streets of the village are then walked by a special wedding procession: since the participants in the march could only be men, the role of the bride is also played by a man. The procession is led by the best man, followed by the young couple with the wedding crowd and musicians. The procession is joined by imitators of various craftsmen, such as a tinsmith, barber or butcher. A bear dancer and a log-puller are also regular figures having fun with the young couple. The procession goes from house to house, and if they are admitted, they are served: ham, eggs, sausages, wine are added to the basket of the Dőres. Once they walk around the village, they march to a central location where they burn the straw hut symbolizing winter and the carnival season. Until the Resurrection ceremony on Holy Saturday, the people of Rye Island strictly kept the Lent regulations. They ate neither meat nor fatty foods, and in this time of the year they cooked in so-called fasting pots. A widespread and popular fasting dish in the area is named kőtés, for which wheat was germinated, ground, and washed several times. It was thickened with a touch of flour, reeds were stabbed in it and then it was baked. The day after Ash Wednesday was called Greedy Thursday, when fasting was paused to consume the carnival remnants.
Weather-related observations are also associated with the holidays in February.
February 2 is Gyertyaszentelő Boldogasszony (Candlemass Day of Mary in the Catholic calendar), when believers take part in a procession with consecrated, burning candles. In many villages on Rye Island, in the event of a storm and lightning, the candles consecrated on that day were lit to chase the storm away, and the breadbaking shovel and axe were thrown into the yard during the greatest lightning strikes.
On February 22, there is a celebration of the apostle St.Peter’s Chair at Antioch, and the people of Rye Island believed that the grain sown that day would be subject to mildew.
February 24 is the feast of Jégtörő Mátyás (St. Matthias „the icebreaker”). The saying for this day shares that Matthias makes ice if he doesn’t find it. So if the snow and ice melts on Matthias' day, frost will return.
