Spinners of the World- December 15th

15/12/2017

Welcome to day 15 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts.
We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts!
Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you!

Todays spinner is Anna from Hungary.

My hometown is actually closer to Vienna or Bratislava than our capital Budapest, so our traditions were influenced by Slovaks and Austrians.
We celebrate St. Nicholas day on 6th December. Actually the children are given a "mikulás csomag" which could be translated as Nicholas's packet. A bright red cloured sachet full of sweets, chocolate Nicholases, nuts and "szaloncukor"
We also celebrate Christmas Eve with our family. It is a must to visit grandparents the same evening to wish merry christmas. There is a nativity play at our Catholic church at around three o'clock and the angels bring the decorated christmas tree after we have attended the service. Parents ( me and my husband) usually decorate the tree in the morning or around noon secretly and as I have mentioned the angel or angels bring the tree, and the wrapped presents to the family. A small giftcard reveals the name who it is meant to.
I will do some socialising, visiting and treating relatives. I have already admired the Kristkindl Market in Vienna and it was admittedly cold. I will favour to stay inside the house.

There are some special dishes we share either on Christmas Eve or the following two days of Christmas. They are stuffed cabbage, fish soup Hungarian style (that means fresh water species of fish with lot of paprika and letcho and bread), then the following days substantial meals with roast or breaded pork and chicken. There are lot of sweet slices as well as rolls filled with walnut or poppy-seed filling.

To make your own Poppy-seed or walnut roll.
Ingredients for the dough:
600 g plain flour,
25g fresh yeast,
a pinch of salt,
a teaspoon granulated sugar,
350 ml lukewarm milk,
100g butter or margarine.

Combine milk, sugar and yeast first, add salt to the flour, then the margarine. Knead together and leave it to rise, app half an hour.
For the filling you need 250g ground poppy-seed or ground walnut and 100g sugar cinnamon powder, lemon zest, scald it with 1dl hot water.
It has to be creamy but not running. You can add sweet biscuit crumbs if it is running. Divide the dough and roll out separately into a rectangle, 30 cm by 40 cm. Spread half of the filling evenly and roll up. Brush with an egg yolk. Leave it to rest another 31 minutes, then brush again. Pinch 3 or 4 holes with a stick through the rolls to let the steam out and it will not break that way. Bake in preheated oven at 150 degrees celsius for about 30 minutes. Leave it to cool and slice it with a sharp knife. It is served slightly dusted with powder sugar.

I am addicted to handspinning and I also like to knit. I like lace patterns. My other hobbies are related to sports, biking, swimming, fitness. The most ambitious gift I've ever made is a knitted pullover to my teenage son. This year I have lots of spinning to do: the time traveller club fibers are waiting for me since august.

Thank you Anna for writing todays post. Come back tomorrow for another spinner.