(22 Apr 2019) In an Easter tradition with a difference, young girls and women were drenched with water at an open-air folk culture museum in Szentendre, just north of the Hungarian capital, on Monday.
The so-called "watering" of the women on Easter Monday is an old fertility rite that dates back to pre-Christian times.
Young men used to pour water on young and unmarried girls in order to, so the tradition claims, keep them healthy and fertile, and to ensure that they did not "wilt", like flowers which have not been watered.
During Monday's celebrations at the Szentendre museum, tourists witnessed girls in traditional dress being drenched with buckets full of water by young men who later put their best foot forward in some traditional folk dances.
Some of the women visiting the museum didn't escape being "watered", although the young men used a more gentile version - twigs of herbs dipped in water and then sprinkled over the unexpecting guests.
The tradition suggests that after being soaked, the women returned the favour by offering the men hollow eggs with painted Hungarian folk designs.
An Easter egg craftsman was on hand at the museum on Monday to show how the famous "shoed" eggs are made.
It's thought egg "shoeing" was invented by village blacksmiths who wanted to prove their skills by decorating an egg with miniature horseshoes.
It soon became an Easter tradition, but the craft is now in decline due to a decreasing number of blacksmiths.

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