Children's Day - 2025

On May 25th, the Richmond Road School classroom once again came to life as the Auckland Hungarian Club organized a special afternoon for the local Hungarian community of all ages.

We had been preparing for this day for weeks, a day entirely dedicated to the children.

The afternoon began with skill-based games: the kids completed seven activity stations, collecting stamps to earn their well-deserved reward – cotton candy. There were tasks like moving paper sheets with a straw, rolling balls toward a target, stacking cups using chopsticks, coordination challenges, and many other creative activities.

For those not rushing from station to station, the craft and play corner offered a space to create freely: coloring, painting, gluing, or simply running around the schoolyard. Alongside the skill games, the children could also complete a bingo card filled with fun challenges. Completing four challenges meant earning another cotton candy.

Tasks included singing a song in Hungarian, introducing themselves to a child they hadn’t met before, or crawling across the yard in a spider walk. Each row on the bingo card offered a new adventure, and the children enthusiastically ticked off their completed challenges, filling the air with laughter and joy.

When the cotton candy started to fill up little bellies, it was time for the highlight of the day – the surprise performance. The classroom was quickly rearranged, and the audience gathered with curiosity.

On stage, a very special show came to life: Ludas Matyi, the New Zealand version! Members of the Auckland Hungarian community had spent many weeks preparing this performance, which presented the classic tale with humor, creativity, and lots of heart – and a modern, local twist.

In this version, Matyi doesn’t want to go to Hungarian school on weekends, the geese are environmentally conscious, the steward reports the children for answering in English on their Hungarian test, Döbrögi suffers from mosquito bites, and even local Hungarian vendors make an appearance.

The program ended with a shared dinner: sour cherry soup, Hungarian sausage, sourdough bread, and pickles were served.

This day wasn’t just an unforgettable experience for the children – it also showed how enthusiastic and close-knit the Auckland Hungarian community is. It was a joy to see how, together, we created such a magical Children’s Day for our youngest members.

Fanni Csényi