How well do you know these European Christmas traditions?

DW (English)

Do you know about Hungarian szaloncukor? Or the Colinde singers from Romania? Discover lesser-known Christmas traditions from Central and Southeastern Europe.

Transcript

00:00Do you know these Christmas traditions?

00:03Two, from Hungary and Serbia, are culinary delicacies and one, from Romania, is a musical tradition.

00:11Hungary, like most other European countries, is getting into the Christmas spirit.

00:17Little pieces of candy, that are an essential part of the Hungarian Christmas,

00:21are these filled chocolates called szalonszukor.

00:26Szalonszukor is the taste of my childhood.

00:29It reminds me of days gone by.

00:32Delicious, sweet and soothing.

00:34Szalonszukor is also important as Christmas tree decorations.

00:39But can you eat them even before Christmas?

00:42Candy maker Jeno Vadocz had no problem with that as a boy.

00:47Then, we would just wrap wads of paper up in the candy wrapper,

00:51so it looked like there was still szalonszukor inside.

00:56In his sweet shop not far from Budapest, Jeno has been making szalonszukor for weeks.

01:03He starts with the outer layer of chocolate.

01:07We turn the mold over and tap out the leftover chocolate.

01:16Then comes the filling, usually made of jelly, marzipan or caramel.

01:20Experimenting is allowed.

01:22By tradition, the Christmas tree stands in the salon or living room,

01:26and so the candies got their name.

01:31The next stop on our journey of Christmas discovery is Northern Romania.

01:35The kolinde is an old tradition here.

01:38Children don traditional costumes and pass through the villages singing Christmas carols.

01:44I really like getting together with everyone and celebrating Jesus' birth.

01:50The kolinde bring generations together, old and young.

01:56The lyrics tell of the Lord's goodness that people on earth should emulate.

02:06To thank the kids for the songs, they get homemade.

02:10To thank the kids for the songs, they get homemade kolache, or sweet ring-shaped yeast buns.

02:16Baking and singing carols together can inspire a little holiday spirit in everyone before Christmas.

02:28The songs are very, very old.

02:31I'm 66 and we sang the same carols.

02:34Every village has its own kolinde, and even different melodies.

02:39Novi Sad in northern Serbia is also getting into the Christmas spirit.

02:43Many people here are mindful of the festival's religious significance.

02:47But they don't celebrate Christmas in December.

02:50The Orthodox celebrate on January 7th.

02:52In the morning we wish the first male person to enter the house Merry Christmas.

02:56Then we light candles and look for sweets under the table.

03:00My mother gets up at 3 or 4 in the morning and bakes bread.

03:04She puts a coin in it.

03:06A coin in the bread?

03:08Yes, that's right.

03:10The Serb Christmas tradition is called Česnica.

03:14First, the yeast dough has to be prepared.

03:17The dough is rolled out into ropes and woven into shape.

03:20Then comes the decisive moment.

03:25Here we have a coin, washed and wrapped in foil.

03:30And now we hide it in the dough.

03:33The belief is that whoever finds the hidden coin at Christmas breakfast will have good luck.

03:48Europe's many Christmas traditions are vibrant and varied.

03:52Do you know of any more Christmas traditions we haven't heard of yet?

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