Magyar Magic #9: Hó Hó, Here Comes the Snow

Despite the occassional sprinkling of hó ("snow"), Hungarians don't know much about snow. Or at least they don't have as many clever ways to talk about it as, for example, the Eskimos, who have 100 plus words for the fluffy white stuff. In the undying words of singer Zsuzsa Koncz, "Minél inkább havazik, annál inkább hull a hó" ("The more it is snowing, the more is falling the snow"). These two lines come from a song about Micimackó (Winnie the Pooh), which every Magyar likes to hum to themselves when it starts to snow, as it briefly did this morning, for the first time in Budapest in the winter of 2005-2006.

When it starts to really snow, the popular Hungarian saying Jóból is megárt a sok ("Even good can be too much") changes to Hóból is megárt a sok ("Even snow can be too much"). Indeed, when you are really fed up with something - for example, snow - you can say Tele van vele a hócipőm ("My snow shoes are full of it"). A satirical bi-weekly magazine, which writes about things people are fed up with, calls itself Hócipő. In case you are wondering why the word hó is in the word for "month" (hónap), it was originally holdnap ("Moon day"), so it has nothing to do with snow, no matter how long it sits around in Budapest getting all black and icky.