HOLLOKO, Hungary: The village of Holloko in northern Hungary still maintains the centuries-old tradition of watering women at Easter with buckets of ice-cold water.
The village hosts the country's major Easter festival each year, with many groups of men and women dressing up in folk costumes and getting drenched several times.
The watering of women is a tradition that stems from pagan fertility and cleansing rites and was widely practiced across Central and Eastern Europe for centuries. Today, the tradition of dousing women with buckets of cold water is usually replaced by a quick spray of perfume over women's heads.
But in Holloko, cold water continues to be the tradition.
Getting soaked is a matter of pride for traditional women at Easter, as it signifies they have many male visitors, said villager Zsofia Kelemen.
Thousands of visitors attend each year, also receiving their share of water sprinkling in the streets of the Unesco World Heritage List village. — Reuters
