Festivals and celebrations have always played a big part in my family.

They brought us closer together, and we love giving each other presents
and love. We don’t need to be anxious about anything, only have a good
time and enjoy it. My favourite ones are Christmas, and Easter. This is
because at Christmas, I can give my parents presents but I also receive
some from them. It is also one of my favourites because we go to
Lajosmizse, to celebrate with my cousins. This is almost the only time
we see the other half of our family. My parents don’t really have good
relations with them, as they had differences before, but I really like
playing and talking with my cousins. We usually go for a walk around
the frozen lake, or play snowball battles. We also eat together, talk about
what happened with us throughout the year, and play football and
handball inside the house, as my step-grandmother lives in a mansion.
We also give each other presents on this day, but personally I do not like
arts and crafts, so me and my mother go to the shop to buy something
for them. We usually buy some wine for the adults, and something for
the cousins. We don’t go only once every December, though. We also
visit them during Advent. Advent is when we wait for Christmas to come.
It is a tradition in lots of families, especially the ones with children. There
is an object called the Advent calendar. There are little windows on it,
and every night the child can open one window, from the first to the
twenty-fourth of December. The Advent calendar can be different, each
window contains something from candy, to some bigger presents each
day till Christmas comes. There is also a tradition, when people take four
candles, three purple, one pink as I know. Each candle represents a
Sunday in the month. Once we reach the fourth, the pink candle, it
means it is Christmas. Hungarian families also bake food, like
gingerbread or the poppy seed roll. We also eat stuffed cabbage, one of
my favourite food, with bread and pepper. Hungarian Christmas is a bit
different from other countries. Usually in the United Kingdom, Christmas
is on the 25th of December, and Santa brings the presents for everyone,
meanwhile in Hungary, it is on the 24th of December, and Jesus brings
the gifts under the Christmas tree. It is also a tradition in England for
children to hang up stockings or boots, so they get goodies in them. In
Hungary it is not a tradition, but many families like mine still do it. Easter
is also like this, but instead of playing inside, we go outside and play
football there. We also used to play basketball, but we got way too big
for that small rim so we don’t play it anymore. Once again we go for a
walk around the lake, and watch the ducks. There is also a playground
near it, so we go there too and play a bit. One of my favourite activities
on these walks is that we act like soldiers. We pick up sticks from the
ground and act like they are weapons, or use nerf guns. We also
organise an egg-hunt, where me and my cousins team up to find the
eggs hidden around the garden. This usually turns into a bloody
competition, for who will eat the most chocolate in one day. Of course I
usually win, but I don’t like chocolate that much so I usually give some to
them and take the rest home for my parents. Easter is the celebration of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God, and the beginning of
spring. This period begins on Good Friday, and ends on Easter Sunday.
Women and girls paint eggs, while boys go around town and spray girls
with their cologne, so they don’t “wither”. In return, boys get hand
painted or chocolate eggs. The best part of these celebrations is the
family lunch. My step-grandmother makes all sort of dishes like stuffed
cabbage, fried chicken with crisps, and meat soup. Her meat soup is
great with some hot pepper, and I always tear up. Not because of how
good the soup is, it’s because the pepper is always so hot that I usually
burn my tongue and I can’t taste anything afterwards. There is also
some kind of dessert like poppy seed rolls, linzer, gerbaud and chestnut
puree. We also sometimes go to eat at a restaurant, but personally I
prefer home-made dishes. We don’t need to wait long hours for the food,
and it is also calmer than going to a restaurant. I also like birthdays,
especially mine as I get presents and money that I can spend on
upgrading my room, and on many more things, like my computer. I’ve
never had a surprise party before, but I don’t really want one. It’s just the
same as a regular birthday party, but before it starts people scare you.
Like what is that good for? I didn’t have a birthday party in the previous
years, because of COVID, or because I simply didn’t want one. But I
remember I enjoyed it a lot as a kid. We used to go laser fighting with
some of my boy classmates, and we had lots of fun. We usually
destroyed our opponents, and I loved playing as the sniper. Of course
my favourite part used to be the birthday cake and the presents. My
favourite type of cake is cheesecake. Before that I really liked Marzipan
cakes, and I still do, but cheesecake is really underrated. It has a great
taste and my mother makes them greatly. If I had a birthday party in my
home, I probably wouldn’t decorate the house. I’m not that kind of a
person who likes doing arts and crafts, and making the house look more
colourful. If I was forced to decorate it, I would probably use store-bought
decorations. There is one festival I don’t really like. New Year's Eve.
What I mean “I don’t like” is that everyone drinks a lot during this time,
and I do not like alcohol. But what I do like is that we can restart every
new year. There’s a tradition amongst people: they make a promise to
themselves at the start of the year. This can be one but it can also be
more than one. Then at the end of the year, they see what they have
achieved and if they have fulfilled their promise. For example if someone
wants to stop being an alcoholic, this is a great time for him to start.
Hungarian families usually watch the news channel while waiting
together for the new year to start. At the new year, many of them toast
with champagne. There are even people who go outside, and do
fireworks. These are really beautiful but also really loud. There are lots of
Hungarian based holidays, like March 15th, when we celebrate the
Revolution against the Habsburg tyranny, or August 20th, when we
celebrate our first king Stephen I. On March 15th, we listen to the
anthem, and remember our heroes who fell in the revolution. Also the 13
Martyrs of Arad. The revolution of 1848 was one of the bloodiest
revolutions of the Hungarians ever. We were a part of the Habsburg
Dynasty’s Austrian Empire. We were the 2nd largest ethnicity after the
Germans in the country and we wanted some recognition from the
austrians. Sadly, they didn’t give it to us, so we revolted. The Hungarians
were first successful in their revolt, but because the Austrian Empire was
guaranteed by the Russian Tsar, the Russians came in from the East
and crushed the Hungarian armies. On the 13th of August, 1849, the
final army in Világos, near the city of Arad surrendered to the Austrians,
and the revolt was officially over. To showcase their power over the
Hungarians, the Kaiser, Franz Joseph and the generals ordered the
execution of 13 generals, and the Prime Minister of the free Hungarian
state, Batthyány Lajos. There was also a famous Hungarian writer
fighting in the revolt called Petőfi Sándor. This wasn’t the only revolt we
celebrated in Hungary. In World War 2 the Hungarians stood on the side
of the Third German Reich. After the war was lost, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic established us as their puppets, under a social
leadership in the country. The Hungarian people didn’t like this, mainly
because of a secret police called State Protection Authorityl, in
shortened form SPA. This was the communist secret police of hungary.
They controlled everyone's life and were under the leadership of the
USSR itself. After many years, the revolt happened in 1956, and ended
by a hungarian defeat once again. That moment, every nation looked up
to Hungary, and their will to be free.