Hungarian shadow dance group Attraction won Britain's Got Talent 2013

 

My Darling (Kedvesem)

ByeAlex (Alex Márta) represented Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with his nice, unforgettable song My Darling (Kedvesem), written and composed and performed by him. He won the 10th place with 84 points in the Grand Final in Malmö, Sweden yesterday. We are proud of ByeAlex and Dani Kővágó (guitar) and Helga Wéber (backing vocals) and also Zoltán Palásti Kovács Zoohacker (remix). Congratulations!

The lyrics in English:

Thanks to Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Albania, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Serbia and Greece for their votes on ByeAlex's song.

And congratulations to Denmark's Emmelie de Forest, the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Happy Mother's Day

 

In Hungary, Mother's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May and has been celebrated since 1925.
Let's greet Mothers with this wonderful song performed by Katalin Szvorák:

 

And here is a funny video, an ad of an online flower shop. We so often think of other people's mother during the year, let's think of our own mother on Mother's Day.

A real Spring

Homemade Easter Bread

A good start to the month – the first day is a holiday and, at long last, no snow,  no rain. We woke up to a quiet sunny day, and cut our Easter Bread made the day before for breakfast. It’s delicious!

Here is the recipe of the ham-and-egg stuffed Easter Bread:

Dough ingredients for one loaf of bread

30 dkg (11 oz)  flour

1 teaspoon salt

150 ml (3/4 cup) lukewarm milk

1 teaspoon sugar

3 dkg (1 oz) fresh yeast

1 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 eggs

Stuff ingredients:

boiled eggs, boiled ham cut into cubes, grated smoked cheese, dry or fresh parsley or ramsons  to taste

If you have a kneading machine, put all the dough ingredients into it and let the machine knead the dough.

If you do not have one, follow the traditional way:

1. Heap  30 dkg (11 oz) flour mixed with 1 teaspoon salt in a mixing bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the flour.
2. Put  the yolk  and white of 1 egg and 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon lemon juice into the hole.
3. Pour 150 ml (3/4 cup) lukewarm (38 degrees C or 100 F) milk into a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon sugar. Crumble 3 dkg fresh yeast to the milk and stir gently to mix it. Proof the yeast  up to 10 minutes.
4. Pour the proofed yeast mixture into the mixing bowl to the flour and work the ingredients into a dough. Knead the dough on a floured board about 20 minutes and, if necessary, add some more flour to make a soft dough that will not stick to hands. Make a round loaf, cover and put it in a warm place and let it rise double in size for about 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (390 F)
6. While the dough is rising, slice the boiled eggs, cut the ham into cubes and grate the smoked cheese and slice the fresh parsley or ramsons into tiny pieces.
7. When the dough ball has doubled in size, punch the dough down and roll out into a rectangular shape.
8. Scatter the ham and eggs and the grated cheese over the survace to within an inch of the edges. Sprinkle with parsley or ramsons.
9. Starting at the longest side, roll the dough up, making sure to tuck in the ends.
10. Slightly grease or oil the baking pan and put the loaf into it.
11. Beat the remaining egg with a fork and brush it over the surface of the dough.
12. Allow the loaf to rise for another 35 minutes.
13. Brush the surface of the dough again with some eggs.
14. Place the pan into the preheated oven. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

Easter Bread can also be made after Easter holidays in order to utilize the remaining boiled eggs and ham.

Less sleep but more daylight

                                         (Source: http://bestsellers.hu)

Snow, snow, snow...

A never-ending winter in spring. What is the reason for the unusually cold weather? The answer is in this article. Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and North America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice.

Because Easter is drawing near, people are building snowbunnies instead of snowmen.

The International Day of Happiness

is celebrated first time ever in the world today. 

The root of happiness is inside us. We should never allow our happiness depend on the circumstances or other people.

Let's smile and be happy not only on this day but always!

Happiness is a wonderful experience, it lies deep down inside
It’s like a sunflower; it follows the things you enjoy in your life
Happiness recovers you from dark cloudy days
Happiness is not a secret for you to keep
It should be shared with others, so they too can feel the joy that it brings
With happiness you can make a difference in life and to others
Remember happiness can be a healer. 
(Happiness by Orane Boothe)

Slowly but surely, life goes back to normal after the snowstorm in Hungary

According to the statement of the Directorate General for Disaster Management on 16 March 2013, the situation has improved but there are disruption. The Police is still asking people to stay home, stay warm and not to go by car. And people, who left their cars on the M1 motorway, are asked to call these telephone numbers: 06-34/517-790 or 06-20/224-27-22.
Motorways are mostly passable but, due to the snowdrifts and stranded cars, not everywhere. Rescue teams of the Disaster Management as well as volunteers are digging stranded cars and trucks out of the snow. It'll take some days to clean all roads, motorways, highways in the country.

Help and the latest info can be obtained at the "Segítsünk a bajban" (Let's Help in Trouble) Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/segitsunkabajban?ref=ts&fref=ts 
(http://translate.google.com/?hl=hu#hu/en/)

Live Traffic Info: http://www.motorway.hu/ 

Hungary - Snowstorm, 14-15 March 2013 

  

Hungary had witnessed a similar snowstorm on 15 March 1962

 

Hungary is under snow on the National Day

Hungary is celebrating the 1848 Revolution on this day. Even Google is commemorating this event with a Doodle illustration

(Source: https://www.google.hu/webhp?hl=hu&tab=ww)

However, all the open-air celebrations are cancelled due to the snowstorm.
Spring arrived with mild weather two weeks ago. People thought winter was over and changed their cars' winter tyres to summer ones. As a result, there are a lot of accidents due to the unexpected snow and icy weather. Many cars and buses are stranded on the roads and motorways. The passengers had to spend the night in their vehicles in the snowstorm. Though the rescue teams, including the Hungarian Military Forces with their special vehicles, are trying to reach and help every stranded cars, hundreds of people are still waiting for help on the roads.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is now sending SMS to people "We help!  Don't leave your vehicle! If you run out of fuel, sit into another vehicle!". If they had sent a warning SMS to the citizens a day earlier, before the snowstorm hit the country, perhaps less people would have been in trouble.
But it is good to see how many private persons offer their help and home to the people in trouble, and locals from the nearby villages bring food and drink to people who have been stranded in the snow.

Almost four years have gone by

since my last post. I did not forget about gifts from life. Many things happened since then, happy and sad things, good and bad experiences but these are all gifts from life because we can learn from them.  "...all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there." (Richard Bach)

An abandoned blogspot looks like a neglected old tomb with no flowers, no visitors. So it's high time to update my blog.

Summer time

Though summer is still far away, summer time or daylight saving time (DST) started in Hungary today. We had to adjust the clocks to summer time, i.e. 3:00 at 2 a.m. One hour is "stolen" from us but it will be "returned" to us on the last Sunday of October.

In Hungary, DST was first introduced on Sunday 30th April 1916. It was observed every year until 1920, then between 1941 and 1949 and between 1954 and 1957. After a long interval, it was reintroduced on Sunday 6th April 1980 and from that time on we use summer time every year.

How much energy can be saved in Hungary by switching the clocks forward? - About 2,000-4,000 megawatt hours (MWh) daily or about 5 billion HUF (about 21,364,500 USD) annually. It is not too much - approximately 2 USD per capita per year.

What kind of impact does DST have on us? It is quite annoying to move all our clocks forward and, in October, backward. We have to get up one hour earlier in the morning thus losing an hour of sleep. But some people say that sleeping at natural light is a waste of time. However, it takes some days or even weeks while our "inner" clock adjusts to the change. In the first days, the number of accidents increases because people are sleepy and tired. And the risk for heart attack is significantly higher during the transition period to DST. But we gain an extra hour daylight which has a good influence on our general mood. We can use this extra hour for outdoor acitivities that are good for our health.

There are many pros and cons of DST. Countries at or near the Equator have no such problem. They have their standard time all year round. They can't save any daylight by turning the clocks forward since daylight hours along the Equator are similar in every season.

Earth Hour 2009 - Let's turn off the lights at 8:30 pm today

Earth Hour was conceived by WWF Australia in 2007 in order to take action on climate change. Since then, more and more countries supported Earth Hour. 82 countries are committed to Earth Hour all over the world this year.
Only one hour in darkness or at candle light. To spare those 60 minutes is not much time. Small things can often make big things. After all, we all are responsible for our planet and we should save it not only for ourselves but also for future generations.
This evening, I'd like to watch the Earth from the space as lights go out at 8:30 pm local time in each time zone.

Violets are blooming!

Though the weather is quite cold, wild violets are blooming in sunny spots in the garden. Their biological clock tells them it's time to bring flowers. It's a good sign - Nature begins to wake up from long winter sleep.

No matter how cold and windy the weather was this weekend, we worked in the garden. Curious glances through the fence followed our every motion, from the left side

and from the right side of the garden:


And Mr Watson, our lovely assistant and chief gardener, gave us a helping paw in digging around the trees, gathering twigs and sawing branches:

Sándor, József, Benedek

Sándor, József, Benedek are Hungarian male names. If you look at a Hungarian calendar, you'll see that it is full of names, at least two names each day of the year. Hungarians celebrate not only their birthdays but also their namedays. You may well think that Hungarians seize every opportunity to celebrate:-)

In the Hungarian folk belief, Sándor (March 18), József (March 19) and Benedek (March 21) usher in Spring:

"Sándor-József-Benedek bring warm weather in a sack."
(Sándor-József-Benedek zsákban hozza a meleget.)

However, they did not bring warmth this year. And the first swallows also failed to arrive on the 19th of March but hopefully, they are on their way to us.

Spring Equinox at 11:44 am (UTC) today

March 20 (sometimes March 21) marks the beginning of Spring at the northern hemisphere and the beginning of Autumn at the southern hemisphere.

The sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal at this time of the year in all parts of the world.
Why am I so happy about it? Because, from now on, the days will be longer than nights in that hemisphere of the Earth where I am living.

Budapest Spring Festival 2009

If you happen to be in Budapest, do not miss the Budapest Spring Festival which will kick off tomorrow offering a wide range of programs, including concerts, exhibitions, opera, operetta, international theater festival, folk music and dance, etc. Please have a look at the list of programs and venues at www.festivalcity.hu and make your choice.
I'll visit the Japanese Day in Thália Theatre since I am interested in Far Eastern culture and arts and also "The Little Mole and His Friends" (my favourite Czech cartoon) exhibition at Millenáris Teátrum and, of course, concerts, the theater festival... if I have time.

National Day of Hungary - The Day of the 1848 Revolution

Walking in the streets in Hungary, you can see people wearing red-white-green cockades on their coats.
Today is the Ides of March. Hungarians commemorate the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 today. This revolution grew into a war for independence from Habsburg rule.
Hungary's national poet, Sándor Petőfi (1823-1849), one of the key figures in starting the revolution, recited his poem the "National Song" (Nemzeti dal) on 15th March 1848 at the National Museum.

National Song

Rise up, Magyar, the country calls!
It's 'now or never' what fate befalls...
Shall we live as slaves or free men?
That's the question - choose your 'Amen"!
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

For up till now we lived like slaves,
Damned lie our forefathers in their graves -
They who lived and died in freedom
Cannot rest in dusts of thraldom.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

A coward and a lowly bastard
Is he, who dares not raise the standard -
He whose wretched life is dearer
Than the country's sacred honor.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

Sabers outshine chaine and fetters,
It's the sword that one's arm betters.
Yet we wear grim chains and shackles.
Swords, slash through damned manacles!
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

Magyar's name will tell the story
Worthy of our erstwhile glory
we must wash off - fiercely cleansing
Centuries of shame and condensing.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

Where our grave-mounds bulge and huddle
Our grandson will kneel and cuddle,
While in grateful prayer they mention
All our sainted names' ascension.
God of Hungarians, we swear unto Thee,
We swear unto Thee - that slaves we shall no longer be!

(Translated by Adam Makkai)

******************************

I'm always interested in other nations' opinion about Hungary and Hungarians. So I was curious to know whether the national day of Hungary is mentioned somewhere in the World Wide Web. I found a piece of news on our national day in Manila Bulletin. Thank you for the congratulation! Maraming salamat!

Snowdrops in the garden

The warm sunshine coaxed us into going out to the garden. It's mid-March and it's high time to start to prune the bushes and the trees. While working in the garden, I discovered the first snowdrops under a bush. This flower's name in Hungarian is hóvirág (snow flower).

World Wide Web's 20th Birthday

The world wide web marked its 20th anniversary today. WWW is a great invention, it has changed our lives, thanks to its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. I have been using internet for eleven years and I can't imagine my life without it.