hufolk1-6, Exercise 3: Testing "thousands of years old"

Model answer:

Ask what the earliest written or recorded evidence is for the custom in Hungary, and whether the website cites it. Midsummer fires are widespread in Europe, so the custom may be old in general without being continuous in a particular village. Check whether a church feast (St John's Eve) gave the custom its date, whether collectors recorded it in the nineteenth or twentieth century, and whether it lapsed and was revived. If the only support is a popular claim that it is a pre-Christian survival, treat it as an interpretation, not a record.