This Is How Much Easter Costs This Year

Easter is coming and with it the big shopping to the festivities. Hungarians typically serve ham with eggs, horseradish and a variety of vegetables, which many people buy well in advance. Magyar Nemzet looked into the cost of Hungarians’ favorite Easter dishes this year.

It is not advisable to leave the holiday shopping to the last minute, but like the retail chains, the markets will be open on Saturday. However, shops and markets will be closed on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

The markets, market halls and shopping centers of Budapest Market Halls Ltd. have launched a campaign to encourage the consumption of lamb, reviving the old Hungarian Easter tradition,

they announced.

In addition, all traditional Easter foods, in several price categories, are available in market halls and shopping centers in the capital belonging to the Budapest Market Halls Ltd. In the ham sector, there is a wide range of products, from traditional domestic peasant ham and quick-ripening products to smoked ham, thighs, loin, chops, the increasingly popular heart-shaped ham, and Italian specialities. Prices at the Central Market Hall range from 3,900 forints to 6,990 forints (between 9.50 and 17 euros) per kilo for traditional smoked heart ham, and this is typical in other Budapest markets. When compared to the prices in retail chains, the price of ham is close to the lower end.

In the Fehérvári Road market hall, there is a wide range of artisan and premium products. Shoppers can also find Parma hams matured for 24 months and sprinkled with truffle flakes, or beechwood-smoked heart hams at 4,500 forints (11 euros) per kilogram or traditional smoked peasant hams at 4,900 forints (12 euros) per kilogram at Bosnyák Square market.

Tamás Éder, the social chairman of the Hungarian Meat Industry Federation, told Világgazdaság that it should also be borne in mind that there is a wide variety of quality products on the market in the Easter smoked goods category. He stressed that a quick-ripened, cooked ham costing around 2,700-3,000 forints (around 7 euros) and a traditional aged ham at 4,000-4,500 forints (around 10 euros) are not the same product. He added that

it is worth checking the shelf life of the product carefully when buying it, and to buy safe, fine Hungarian meat instead of cheaper, lower quality products.

Tamás Földes, the company’s managing director, said that the hams for the Easter table are accompanied by eggs, month-old red and beer radishes, lettuce, iceberg lettuce, fresh and ready-to-eat horseradish, spring onions, tomatoes and peppers. Traditional L-size eggs are on sale for as little as 86 forints (0.20 euros) per piece, but for those looking for something special, there are smoked and boiled quail eggs in spicy oil as well. Sweet or savory plaited scones are available for between 800 and 1,000 forints (around 2-2.4 euros), while fruit scones cost 900 forints (2.2 euros).

Fresh vegetables are guaranteed in the market halls, so it is even worth visiting one of the sites before Maundy Thursday.

Radishes sell for between 250 and 590 forints (0.60-1.45 euros), and a packet of white beer radishes for between 500 and 790 forints (1.22-1.92 euros). Spring onions are between 250 and 580 forints (0.60-1.40 euros), a bunch of bear’s onions is between 400 and 500 forints (around 1.10 euros), lettuce is available from 398 forints (0.97 euros) and iceberg lettuce is around 980 forints (2.40 euros).

In addition to food, you can also buy decorations, with pussy willow being the most popular Easter decoration, but also the classic flowers of spring, daffodils, tulips and hyacinths.

Via Magyar Nemzet, Világgazdaság; Featured photo via Pixabay