Hungary culture

Hungary culture people food and festivals 

Hungarians are quite homogenous but social background and place of residence are important factors in determining peoples’ level of comfort with touching and gestures.

Hungarians like Canadians generally have a very strong sense of space and will generally stand so that the tips of the fingers of his or her outstretched arm just barely touch the other person. Distance can be even greater when speaking or dealing with strangers. It is best to carefully observe each person’s degree of comfort with touching and their preference for personal space.

It is not important to maintain constant eye contact but refusal to make eye contact is considered a sign of dishonesty.

It is customary to shake hands with men, but you should let a supervisor put his hand out first. A man shaking a woman’s hand should also wait for her to put her hand out first. On formal occasions a lady’s hand may be kissed. In some cases, when informal ties are very close, or in the case of relatives or very close friends, men and women might give each other a kiss on each cheek. While talking, men generally do not touch other men.

Hungarians use gestures to a minimum.

Hungarian Society & Culture

Nation of Horsemen

• The Ancient Hungarians lived in the Euro-Asian nomadic pastoral region, where the keeping and use of horses played an important role in their lives.
• Therefore it is not surprising that the horse and horse riding has a central place in Hungarian History, leading to Hungarians being regarded as the nation of horsemen.
• Invitations to foreigners for horseback riding are not uncommon.

Family in Hungary

• The family is the centre of the social structure.
• Generations of extended family often live together.
• The grandparents play an important role in helping raise the grandchildren.
• The family provides both emotional and financial support to its members.

Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life.Magyar kenyér(Hungarian bread) remains very important in the rural and urban cuisine. For the last one hundred fifty years, wheat has been one of the most important crops both for domestic use and exportation. Pig breeding became the most important type of animal breeding in the 1870s, and since then the meat and byproducts of pigs have predominated in the national diet.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions.The cuisine at most village weddings includes chicken soup with specialcsiganoodles that were traditionally believed to have fertility-inducing properties,gulyás, stuffed cabbage, sweetened millet, sweetened rice and other rice dishes, and butter-cream tortes and other baked goods.

According to the national self-image, Hungarians are wine drinkers, but beer drinking is more common. Since the early 1990s there has been an attempt to familiarize the population with regional wines.