Name Day

Here in Hungary, they have this thing called Name Day.  Every name is assigned a day of the year. Since there are more names than days, you will share your name day with other names.  If you have a name that is so unique (i.e. Moon Unit) your parents will dictate a name day.

My brother-in-law's name is Tibor and every year, his name day falls on April 14th. 

We celebrate name days just like birthdays without the cake.  The are presents and the Name Day Person is the special one for the day.

I have a rather large Hungarian family:
Erika - wife
Bence - step son
Echo - dog (good girl...see picture)
Tibor - brother-in-law
Eva - sister-in-law
Piroska - mother-in-law
Kata - niece
Dorka - other niece
Tibor senior - Father-in-law that I rarely see

Every name day or birthday, we all get together and celebrate the occasion.  I think this is great.  This entire family gets together 1 or 2 weekend days a month and celebrates being a family.  There is a big dinner and presents and everyone lays around for a few hours just visiting.

I love how I am as much a part of this family as any other member. 

Tomorrow morning, I get a 5:00 am taxi to the airport.  Time to return to the States.  Time to enter my "other" world. 

This is not an easy thing to do.  I am use to having my wife around and now I just have my dog.  Once I get use to that, I travel back to Hungary and have to get use to sharing my time with someone else.  It's a constant struggle.  I can usually adjust to my new conditions about as fast as I adjust to the time differences.

Someone once asked my wife, "Why do you do it?  Why do you carry on such a long distance relationship?" 

Her answer, "Because its worth it."

I couldn't agree more.

http://www.worldgratitudelist.com     Leave a list.  Read a list.  Be happy.

j