Interesting Hungarian custom?

I recently came across this on Youtube:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INTsF6NTys0]

The person who posted it doesn't seem to know much about it, except that it's a Hungarian tourist attraction. Does anyone here know anything? Pehaps it commemorates some historical event or folk tale?

Never seen anything like it before. Before I clicked it before I thought I was going to see the old Hungarian fertility custom, when young men run down streets slapping women on their bottoms and whacking them with switches. It is supposed to increase their fertility. This happens around Easter I believe. But this is something completely different.

Whatever it is we should have more of it!

The video appears to have been pulled
What was the custom?

Not pulled, I have just viewed it. I too was expecting girls in traditional costumes being accosted and whipped on the street. Yes it was supposedly a fertility ritual and no doubt all that stimulation of young female buttocks would have increased the incidence of intercourse on that day so the birth rate would have increased.

The title of this piece is severe sword spankings on guys saving girls. It didn't look even slightly severe to me.

Geoffrey Stirling.

It's more likely this was something like a Renaissance Fair creative reenactment. Audience members volunteer to be prisoners of the soldiers, played by actors and staff. They are then subjected to humiliating punishments. Humiliating but fun and entertaining for all involved, I would assume.

I'm sure you're right, and the audience there certainly seem to be enjoying it. I just can't help thinking there must be a bit more of a story behind it. It's clearly about a brave young man who saves a damsel in distress from a tanning by taking it himself. But does this refer to one young man in particular or something which was a regular practice? And does covering his head mean the soldier is being duped into thinking he is punishing the girl? I was hoping we might have a few Hungarian members who could explain the origins.

I really like the way they use a saddle a a support. On the other hand I'm not so keen on the sword as an implement ...

If you poke around on that YT channel you'll find other videos from the same event like this one:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXbyX4bBLXg]

And this one which seems to be the first sword spanking of the occasion:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX04cOGselc]

I'm inclined to suspect that this isn't representative of any specific historical occurrence or bit of folklore but was invented or adapted from a confluence of various cultural and historical notions like the values of chivalry and honor for the event we're seeing here. That and the master of ceremonies is a spanko.

In regards to implements I'll close with this:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygLPZEQ6EQ8]

Thanks for that. You're right. it looks like the protection aspect is not essential after all. And the head covering is just to hide the identity of the punisher.


Suddenly the sword doesn't seem so bad (though maybe the bark of "Scorch" is worse than its bite!)