Hunglish.orgOn the "locsolni" tradition in Hungary, certainly one of the planet's more unique Eastertime traditions.
Written by Scott Savoie
Locsolni (v.) 1. to throw water on; 2. to spray with perfume; 3. to send an SMS or email.
Back in the day, the crazy peasant of Hungary used to douse fair maidens (and i would imagine a few ugly ones, too) with buckets of water on Easter Monday. This precursor to the modern wet T-shirt contest has long since gone out of fashion.
Like midget tossing, Jello-wrestling and Karaoke, this startling innovation never quite caught on. The original tradition thus gave way to gently spraying girls with nice perfume and reciting a beautiful poem. This, in return, gave way to naughty little boys spraying rancid perfume and reciting (kind of) dirty poems in exchange for red eggs (piros tojás) and cold hard cash.
It is also an opportunity to drink. And drink. And Drink.
Nowadays with the magic of the internet and mobile phones, virtual locsolni can take place across great distances.
Many girls and women seem to detest the custom that leaves them smelling like 10 different perfumes at once, which is to say very, very not good.
Many „modern” Hungarians don’t practice the tradition at all, which is a shame because that is of course how traditions die.