Ilona Day

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

Every year in August our extended family gathered at my great aunt’s home. Her name was Ilona, or Ica as we all called her. Her sister-in-law, my mom’s godmother was also Ilona. So the three families, with all the grandkids gathered every year to celebrate Ilona day, on or around August 18. Two days later my cousins were often visiting us in Budapest to watch the fireworks, but that is a different story.

The day before my great-uncle Kiri (Ferenc, but there were so many men with the same name in the family that each had a different nickname – same with the women sharing my first name) would go fishing, and quite possibly, at times, to the market to get a wider variety of fish after his return from his fishing trip. In the afternoon he’d start the fire, with various family members arriving one after the other. He made a wonderful halászlé, or fisherman’s soup. I remember not liking it at first then gradually getting very fond of it. I’m still looking for that taste in every bowl of halászlé I have.

The grown ups would have some shots of pálinka, or some beer, or wine with plenty of soda water while they were preparing the bacon and vegetables for the next round of the evening, while my cousins, sister, and I would run wild, pretending to be wild horses. My constant playmate was my first ever friend, my cousin Judit. My sister was closer in age to our other cousins, so she played with them most of the time.

After eating the halászlé, the next event was the szalonnasütés, or putting pieces of lard/bacon/hotdogs on sticks with onions, roasting them over an open fire, and dripping the grease on fresh bread that we’d eat with the roasted meats and bacon, with fresh vegetables. There would be singing, and more running around as wild horses. The dessert would be my great-aunt’s famous toffee wafers, that, apparently, my grandmother also used to make. I still have the recipe, and every summer I have the urge to make it, but somehow I never make.