PAGAN CHRISTENING.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19880, 8 May 1936, Page 9

PAGAN CHRISTENING.

BABY’S FACE CUF. REVIVAL OF HEATHENISM. (Times Air Mail Service). LONDON, April 16. A baby’s face was ritually cut today at the first “christening” to be held in modern Hungary according to the 1000-year-old pagan rites of the Hungarian war god Hadur, says the Budapest correspondent of the Daily Express. This heathen religion has been revived in parts of Hungary in the past year. The “christening” was held in the town of Oroshaza in eastern 'Hungary. The baby was the son of a rich peasant named Andreas Janlco. Forty people collected in the peasant’s garden. Three Hadur priests—one of them a civil servant.—clad in red robes embroidered with a yellow sun and blue caps with a silver moon, were in charge. First a fire was lighted, from which the forty guests took burning faggots. Old Hungarian songs were sung. Crescent Mark. Then the parents handed the child to the priests, who made a small incision on either cheek in the form of a crescent. The priests then held a mirror to the baby and intoned the words. “This is the mirror of conscience. Now you are pure. You must remain without sin and free from Western culture. The baby was then named Arpad, after the Hun conqueror. The Hadur cult dates from the time when the Huns lived in Asia. They own a chapel Jn Budapest.