Families and locals all attended the celebrations which began with a talk about Jesus and the resurrection, a pretty standard tail in Christianity...then we stood at the front and told them about easter egg hunts and other British traditions. Then it became, for a non-religious guy, a bit strange. Firstly the lady who was talking about the Easter story told the kids that he died for our sins, then drew a black heart on the board and said to the kids that if they shouted out a sin then they get a sticker... They started by saying generic things like murder or lying, which were written on a post it note and stuck to the black heart. But some kids took it a bit literally and it became a kind of confessional, one young person of about 5 years in age shouted out 'if you strike your friend hard on the head with a heavy ball' as a sin... Then came the 'triangle of doom'(I gave it this name), a notion I had never heard, which was categorically stated as a triangle of sin that if you do bad things will rotate in your heart and cause pain...
After this, the traditions began with crafts for the families and sports outside. All involved really took to this and my role was to be the really big adult getting made a fool by children who were experts at football, which I carried off very well!
In the afternoon, we did the incredibly British traveller activity of souvenir shopping... Yawn... The rest of the day was free time until an activity that nearly killed me... Hungarian Folk Dancing.
This was held at a very hip joint in the middle of Debrecen. I foolishly thought we may have been going to a beginners class and we would be eased in gently... But alas, it was straight into a class of people who seemed pretty good and very serious about their dancing. Now, I am no dancer, I thought I was co-ordinated when I was at Uni, and I have the 'running man' down to a tee. But this was fast, energetic and in a group; which meant when I messed up there was a mexican wave of people in the circle trying to correct their steps due to my...ahem... Artistic interpretation of what I was told to do. It was incredibly fun though, and would recommend everyone to try it if they come to Hungary. Although a warning, don't get too overconfident as you may should thwack your dancing partner in the eye... Which isn't a a dance move,just what happens if I swing Hayley around frantically!
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