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Today, December 6, is Mikulás Nap or St. Nicolas day in Hungary. It is the day that for many Hungarian children, Santa comes to call. The night before, children polish their boots and put them by the window. Inside the boots are candles and Hungarian Christmas candy called szaloncukor, which traditionally is fondant covered by chocolate, but now come in a variety of flavours.
Szaloncukor
Mikulás is accompanied by an angel and a scary devil-like creature called krampusz. If the child has been good, they receive little gifts and treats from the angels, but if they’ve been bad, they receive twigs in their boots from the krampusz.
Krampusz – a scary looking fellow no? Photo: Markus Ortner
While I didn’t put out my boots for Mikulás, there are plenty of szaloncukor around the house. They come in a variety of flavours – my favorite one is the coconut one. Restaurants get into the celebrations too. While dining out last year in the eve of Mikulás Nap, I received a Santa hat filled with a chocolate Mikulás and szaloncukor. Shops all around town have these chocolate figures for sale and you can find szaloncukor everywhere too.
A santa hat filled with delicious treats!
It all sounds fairly familiar doesn’t it? Essentially it is the same story as with North American, except that Hungarians have separated Santa Claus and Christmas. What do Hungarians do on Christmas then? That is a story for another day. Stay tuned!
Update Dec 7: Want to see more photos of Krampusz? Check out this photo essay from The Atlantic.
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A few years back, I was fortunate to have been in Praha on December 6th. The evening was a lot of fun, watching the adults/parents with their children, many dressed in costume. With short days, it looks and sounds like a great tradition with the Christmas markets also up and running at the same time. Thanks for the post, Adelina, and for allowing me to relive some of those memories!
The holiday season is a great time to be in Europe! Wishing I was there this year for all the markets and festivities.
Great. I’m going to bed soon, and I’m 99.9% positive that Krampusz will make an appearance in my nightmares. How Hollywood hasn’t picked up on this terrifying character, I don’t know.
Well, if you’ve been good this year, I’m sure you’ll be a-okay 😛
I’m surprised too! But it’s starting to pick up. I’ve been noticing more and more references to it. For example this: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/12/krampus-saint-nicholas-dark-companion/100639/
Interesting. In Romania we have Saint Nicholas (Sfantul Nicolae), on December 6th (bringing kids sweets and small presents or a whip, if the kid didn’t behave 😉 ), and we have Santa Claus (Mos Craciun) on December 25th with the known symbols (and gifts:D).
Interesting! It’s almost like a combination of traditions from North America and Hungary. It’s cool to see that despite being neighbours, traditions can be pretty different from country to country.