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