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The Gingerbread House

Here we are, almost at the end of the Trail “The story of the Slovaks from the Huta”. We covered about 2,5 km together, so it’s time for a long-awaited snack break. And what better place to do that than the Gingerbread House? 

The Gingerbread House is certainly one of the most popular landmarks on the Huta Slavia Complex map. The reason for this is that here you will truly feel spoiled, whether you are 6 or 60 years old! We provide you delicacies of the most diverse, that thrill the little ones, or bring the childhood flavor from long ago to the memory of the grown-ups. And, along with the flavor, the feeling of traveling to the past, to the times when the famous Slovak fairs were organized.

The fairs were organized on the occasion of important religious landmarks, like the (slov. Odpust). Usually, when one of the churches in the area celebrated its dedication, the neighboring parishes would also join in on the event, the believers in neighboring villages organizing processions. They thus set off on foot for the locality where the celebration was held. The path was long and often lasted several hours; on the way, the believers would sing church songs. The Șinteu Church has St. Chiril and St. Metodiu as Patron Saints. They are celebrated every year on the first Sunday of July. During this celebration fairs were organized after mass. These celebrations represented veritable social events, capable of gathering people from the vast region that we’re discussing about. Arriving here either to buy or sell goods, people seized the opportunity to meet again, to recount their joys to one another, to spend several hours or even several days in a completely unique atmosphere. They forgot for a while about their daily hardships and about the difficulties of mountain life. Celebration of the church’s patron saint At fairs people would eat, drink, and sometimes party with fiddlers; competitions were organized between boys and young men of the community. The entire atmosphere was governed by joy, singing, good cheer, and sprinkled with delicacies prepared in their homes by locals: gingerbread, colorful pryanik (slov. medovníky) in various shapes (most often in the shape of a heart, doll, horse, bunny, or rosary), twisted candy, ice cream cones, clothes, toys (flutes, trumpets, dolls), jewelry and accessories (earrings, rings, glasses).

 

Amusements spots would be built at the bigger fairs, where chil. ren could spend their time in the carousel or riding the so-called swing carousel (slov. kolotoč).

One of the favorite desserts preferred by the Slovaks was the burnt sugar cake. Like any delicacy, it had a secret recipe and was so hard to make, that not everyone dared to prepare it. Sometimes, there were only one or two women that cooked it in the community, preparing the cake for anyone willing to savor it. The delicious burnt sugar and caramel walnuts cake, decorated with egg foam and sugar powder, remains for Slovaks one of their most savory childhood memories from these lands.

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