Like so many conflicts in Hungary, the reasons behind this spooky schism are rooted in history. Similarly to many countries around the world, Hungary observes 1 November as a national holiday that dates back centuries, featuring reverent customs to memorialise the deceased based on Roman Catholic traditions.
Every year on All Saints’ Day, Hungarian families put on their best black suits and dresses to make a pilgrimage to the cemeteries where their late relatives are buried, placing flowers and candles on their graves in respectful tribute. This annual ritual is deeply ingrained custom that transcends generations.
On the other hand, Halloween is a novelty here – two decades ago, this ghoulish celebration of Celtic origins was virtually unheard of, and certainly not celebrated with costumes and trick-or-treating. It was only in the early 2000s that the occasional jack-o’-lantern could be spotted around Budapest. While the funnily frightful goings-on of 31 October are now common in the capital, with themed parties at nightspots, some Hungarians take a dim view of Halloween, especially since it immediately precedes the reverential proceedings of All Saints’ Day.
Interestingly, Hungarians have another historical reason to disregard the spectre of Halloween – by and large, Magyars don’t believe in ghosts, witches and other supernatural forces, partly thanks to the legacy of King Coloman the Learned, crowned way back in 1096. As one of Europe’s most educated monarchs of the Middle Ages, Colomon was appalled by the widespread fear of witches and the practice of burning suspected sorceresses at the stake. He made an official proclamation that there was no such thing as dark magic or demonic spirits, and his subjects obediently stopped believing in such paranormal phenomena, a progressive perspective that continues to this day.
Hence, the concept of celebrating and mimicking the undead on Halloween strikes many Magyars as bizarre, if not sacrilegious to the consecrated traditions of All Saint’s Day immediately afterwards.
Nonetheless, the fun-loving spirit of Halloween is an undeniably appealing reason to dress up and rock out, and so there are plenty of nightspots in Budapest where this foreign holiday will be celebrated with gusto, especially as 31 October falls on a weekend this year. Tomorrow We Love Budapest will post an in-depth round-up of the various Halloween parties citywide.
However, if you invite a Hungarian friend to join these frightening festivities and they decline due to familial duties the following day, it may be hard to convince them – All Saints’ Day can be especially grim with a wicked hangover.
