Best of Budapest & Hungary

On Easter Sunday and Monday, March 31 and April 1, the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum (Skanzen) brings the old village Easter celebrations to life with sprinkling, eggs and a spring festival. Tales, concerts and handicrafts await visitors in the Skanzen.

    Traditions linked to Christian culture and spring folk customs will be on display. Participants can get into the spirit of the holiday season, taste its flavors and paint its colors, the museum said in a statement sent on Thursday.

     They said that in addition to the religious feast, the period before Easter is also a time of spring expectation and spring renewal, which is linked to many beliefs and folk customs. In the Holy Week before Easter, people tidied up their gates and cleaned their houses so that they could attend church services from Maundy Thursday.

    The atmosphere of Easter water sprinkling and spring festivities will be brought to life by the dancers of the Lajta folk dance group from Mosonmagyaróvár in the Skanzen. A craft fair and performances by stilt walkers will add color to the event.

    The craft activities will focus on the Easter egg. Visitors can learn about different egg-dyeing techniques, including buttermilking and scrambling, and admire the meticulously crafted horseshoed eggs. They can also learn about egg decorating motifs from Gheorgheni, Transcarpathia, Bulgaria and Hutsul, and make textile rabbits and chickens, woolen dragons and egg earrings. There will also be an egg maze, egg hunt, Easter playground, seal collection game and scented water demonstration.