St. Martin's Day in Hungary 2026: Goose Feasts, New Wine and Where to Go

Hungary marks Márton-nap, St. Martin’s Day on November 11, by eating goose and pouring the first wine of the new vintage: goose fat on bread, a bowl of goose soup, a crackling-crisp leg, and a glass of wine that was still grapes in September. In 2026 the day itself is an ordinary working Wednesday, so nearly all the feasts sit on the weekends of November 7 to 8 and 14 to 15.

If you know Martinsgans from home, expect a whole menu made of goose rather than one roast, served in village cellars, a Buda hillside restaurant and an open-air museum half an hour from Budapest. Pick your weekend and book early: every goose dinner below is ticketed or needs a table, and the Saturdays go first. The festivals run in Hungarian, but the menus, the wine and the lanterns need no translation.

For the rest of the Hungarian year, from carnival to Christmas, see the calendar of Hungarian holidays and traditions.

Photo: Takkk, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized. The tiered cellar row in Villánykövesd, in the Villány wine region.

📋 At a Glance

Date	Wednesday, November 11, 2026, not a public holiday
Best days to go	The weekends of November 7 to 8 and 14 to 15
What you eat	Goose: liver, soup, roast leg, gizzard stew, cracklings, ludaskása
What you drink	Újbor, the new wine of the 2026 harvest
Easiest from Budapest	Skanzen, Szentendre, November 14 and 15
In the city	Náncsi Néni’s goose days, District II, from October 30
Book ahead	Every goose dinner below is ticketed or needs a table

What Márton-nap Is About

St. Martin, the bishop of Tours, was born in Pannonia, the Roman province that covered western Hungary, and he was one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages here. The Hungarian Ethnographic Lexicon explains why his day mattered beyond the church: November 11 was a deadline. Fourteenth-century records already set dues, payments and elections for it, and herders went from house to house on the day to call on the owners whose animals they had kept all year, collecting a gift at every door.

Three customs from that entry still explain what you will meet in November:

• The goose. In Transdanubia, western Hungary, the Martin’s goose was killed on this day and the new wine was tasted.
• The weather saying. If Martin arrives on a white horse, meaning snow on the day, expect a hard winter. If he comes on a brown horse, with no snow, the winter will be mild.
• The switch. In western Hungary the swineherd carried a birch switch, the Márton switch, from house to house with a blessing, and left it with the household. The number of twigs was said to foretell how much the livestock would increase.

An old saying, printed on this year’s Folly Arborétum dinner listing, sums it up: Márton-napján aki libát nem eszik, egész évben éhezik, whoever does not eat goose on Márton-nap will go hungry all year.

What You Eat: Reading a Márton Menu

The Hungarian goose menu does not stop at the roast. These are the dishes on the 2026 menus quoted on this page:

On the menu	What it is
Libamájleves	Goose liver soup
Libaleves	Clear goose soup, at Náncsi Néni with matzo dumplings
Ropogós libacomb	Roast goose leg, crisp skin, usually with braised red cabbage and potatoes
Libazúza pörkölt	Goose gizzard stew, paprika-based
Libatepertő	Goose cracklings, often with red onion
Libamáj pástétom	Goose liver pâté
Ludaskása	Goose cooked with rice, a country one-pot
Zsíros kenyér	Bread spread with goose fat, the cheapest bite at any festival
Libamell vadasan	Goose breast in vadas, a sweet-sour root vegetable cream sauce

Order the soup and the leg and you have eaten the classic. Order the liver as well and you have eaten the Hungarian version of the feast.

The New Wine

Újbor is wine from this autumn’s harvest, opened for the first time only weeks after the grapes were picked. It is young, fresh and made for drinking now, and Márton-nap is when wineries pour it in public for the first time. Some regions add a ceremony: Badacsonytomaj blesses its Márton-day new wine cuvée and taps a barrel, and Bock Pince in Villány opens its festival with a wine blessing. At most tastings below you get the new wine next to older vintages, which is the most useful way to taste it: you see where the wine starts and where it is going.

The 2026 Calendar, in Date Order

Date	Where	What
From Fri 30 Oct	Budapest, District II	Náncsi Néni’s goose days, until the geese run out
30 Oct to 27 Nov	Villány wine region	Márton-day programs across the region’s cellars and restaurants
Sat 7 Nov	Villány, Bock Pince	22nd St. Martin’s New Wine Festival, doors 16:45, goose buffet, 35,900 Ft
Sat 7 Nov	Etyek, Rókusfalvy	Guided goose-season tasting, 13:00, 6,900 Ft
Sat 7 and Sat 14 Nov	Badacsonyörs, Folly Arborétum	Márton goose dinner with wine pairing, 17:30, 27,900 Ft
9 to 15 Nov	Eger, Szépasszony-völgy	Márton-nap and new wine tasting in the cellar valley
Wed 11 Nov	Villány, Sárga Ház	Five-course goose dinner with five Mokos wines, 27,900 Ft
Sat 14 Nov	Badacsonytomaj	Márton-day festivities, new wine blessing at 15:00
Sat 14 Nov	Badacsonytomaj, Rózsakő Vendéglő	Four-course goose feast, 15,900 Ft
Sat 14 Nov	Villány	Lantern parade
Sat 14 and Sun 15 Nov	Szentendre, Skanzen	St. Martin’s New Wine Festival and Goose Feast
Sat 21 Nov	Badacsonytomaj, Hableány	7th Badacsony New Wine Tasting, 17 wineries

In and Near Budapest

Náncsi Néni Vendéglője, District II

The simplest way to eat a Márton menu without leaving the city. This old-style Buda restaurant at Ördögárok utca 80, out in the green of the Buda hills, has run its goose days since October 30, 2026 and keeps them going until the geese are gone. The 2026 goose menu: goose liver soup 4,250 Ft, goose soup with matzo dumplings 4,730 Ft, crispy roast goose leg 7,960 Ft, goose breast in vadas sauce 7,120 Ft, ludaskása 7,920 Ft, the libalakodalmas plate of goose leg and duck liver 8,870 Ft, and sólet with smoked duck breast 6,280 Ft. The restaurant itself tells guests to book a table, and the weekend closest to Márton-nap is the one to book first.

The Skanzen, Szentendre: November 14 and 15

If you only do one Márton-nap event, make it this one. On Saturday, November 14, and Sunday, November 15, the last weekend of its Autumn Festival of Museums, Hungary’s open-air village museum holds its St. Martin’s New Wine Festival and Goose Feast: the historic houses open 9:00 to 16:00 and the Skanzen Vigadó 9:00 to 18:00. Thirteen Hungarian craft wineries, from Szekszárd, Szentendre, Tokaj, Villány and Eger among others, pour their new wines in the Vigadó, which also serves pulled goose and bread with goose fat. The Skanzen restaurant’s festival menu runs to goose soup, roast goose leg, goose gizzard stew, stuffed cabbage with goose and ludaskása, with strudel and chestnut purée for dessert.

At 16:15 the lantern procession sets off from the Large Map, and you can make a lantern beforehand at one of the craft points. There are folk music sets on the stage both days and a Catholic Mass in the museum’s church at 14:30 on Sunday. The themed wine tastings, 12:30 and 14:30 each day at 2,000 Ft for up to 15 people, are in Hungarian; sign up at the Vigadó. The guided gastro walks are also in Hungarian.

Come on Saturday for the fuller program, and stay for the procession: at 16:15 in mid-November it is already getting dark, which is the point of the lanterns. The Szentendre guide has the HÉV and bus connections and the rest of the Skanzen’s prices.

Etyek: November 7

Etyek, the wine village closest to Budapest, is about 28 km southwest of the center. Rókusfalvy runs a guided goose-season tasting on Saturday, November 7 at 13:00 for 6,900 Ft per person, sold in its webshop. The listing does not say which language it is in, so ask when you book. The Etyek guide covers the rest of the village and how to get there.

Beyond Budapest: Where Márton-nap Is Biggest

Badacsony, Lake Balaton

The volcanic hill above Lake Balaton’s north shore turns its whole November into a goose and new wine month, and the local wine route association lists every date.

• Saturday, November 14, Badacsonytomaj: the town’s Márton-day festivities on the square in front of the town hall, 14:00 to 19:00. The afternoon starts at 14:00 with a pumpkin-carving contest (sign up in advance at the Tourinform office); at 15:00 the festivities open, the Márton-day new wine cuvée is blessed and a barrel is tapped, and then come new wine tasting and bread spread with goose fat, goose meat and cracklings.
• Saturday, November 21, the Hableány in Badacsonytomaj: the 7th Badacsony New Wine Tasting. Seventeen Badacsony wineries each bring one new wine and two older wines to a walking tasting from 12:00 to 19:00. Bence Laposa leads cellar tours at 12:00 and 14:00 (3,990 Ft), Dr. József Laposa a masterclass at 16:30 (4,490 Ft), and the Carson Coma acoustic trio plays in the evening. Tickets are on tixa.hu, and the concert starts at 20:30.
• Goose dinners: the Folly Arborétum in Badacsonyörs serves a four-course Márton dinner on November 7 and 14 at 17:30 after a 16:30 estate walk with a tasting, 27,900 Ft, with goose ragout in a Hokkaido pumpkin as the main course. The Rózsakő Vendéglő in Badacsonytomaj serves a four-course goose feast with live music on November 14, lunch at 13:30 or dinner at 17:30, 15,900 Ft with a 5,000 Ft deposit.

If the trip is about the wine, take November 21: it is the one day you can taste the whole hill’s new vintage in one room. The Badacsony guide covers the trains and the rest of the area.

Villány

Hungary’s red wine country in the far south runs Márton-day programs from October 30 to November 27, and its wine region office lists more than a dozen of them.

• Bock Pince, Saturday, November 7: the 22nd St. Martin’s New Wine Festival. Doors open at 16:45, with concerts in a heated outdoor tent, a wine blessing, unlimited new wine and a goose buffet: cracklings with red onion, goose liver pâté, tarragon gizzard soup, goose sausage, crispy leg and gizzard stew with porcini. Tickets are 35,900 Ft with the dinner; it is a standing event, with no table bookings.
• Sárga Ház, Wednesday, November 11: one of the few dinners on the day itself, a guided dinner of five goose courses with five Mokos wines, new wines among them, 27,900 Ft.
• Dráva Hotel, Harkány, November 7 and 14: a goose buffet with a glass of wine for 9,990 Ft, the cheapest full goose dinner on this page.
• Mokos, Palkonya, November 14: a goose dinner, then a Swabian ball with live music from 20:30, which you can join for free without the dinner ticket.
• Lantern parade: Villány’s town calendar lists its Márton-day lantern parade on November 14.

Villány is a long way for one dinner, so make it a weekend; the Villány guide has the cellars, the trains and Siklós castle.

Eger

Eger’s city tourism office lists Márton-nap and new wine tasting in the Szépasszony-völgy, the valley of cellars just outside the center, from Monday, November 9, to Sunday, November 15. The detailed program was still marked as coming soon, and a string of goose dinners in the town’s restaurants and wineries are listed for November 11 to 15. The Eger day trip guide covers the rest.

Late and Pending Announcements

• Pannonhalma. The Benedictine archabbey’s basilica is dedicated to St. Martin, but the abbey’s tourism events calendar lists no Márton-nap program for 2026.
• Szombathely. The city tourist office lists a Szent Márton-nap at the Vasi Skanzen open-air museum on Saturday, November 7 from 10:00, but the listing still says details are coming soon, and no program or ticket price has been published.
• Budapest restaurants. Gundel serves its Márton-nap goose and new wine menu from November 11 to 22: goose liver pâté baked in pastry with quince compote 7,000 Ft, goose soup with matzo dumplings 3,500 Ft, and a Márton goose platter for two (crispy leg, grilled liver, braised red cabbage, onion mashed potatoes and duck breast) 17,900 Ft. Kéhli, Rézkakas and Hungarikum Bisztró had no 2026 Márton menu on their own sites.

Gundel’s menu at gundel.hu, Pannonhalma’s events calendar at foapatsagiturizmus.hu and the Vasi Skanzen listing at szombathelypont.hu, re-read on November 3, 2026.

Good to Know Before You Go

• November 11 is a normal Wednesday. Nothing closes for it. If you can only come for the day itself, Villány’s Sárga Ház dinner and Eger’s restaurant program are the options; everything else is on a weekend.
• Book the dinners now. Every goose dinner on this page is ticketed or wants a reservation, and the Saturday dates are the ones that go first.
• Expect Hungarian. The festivals run in Hungarian, and the Skanzen states it for its tastings and walks. Menus, wine and lanterns need no translation.
• Dress for the dark. Mid-November sunsets come just after 16:00, as the November guide shows, so every lantern procession and most of the evening tastings happen after dark in near-freezing air.
• Do not drive to a tasting. Hungary allows drivers no alcohol at all. For Villány, Badacsony or Eger, take the train or stay the night.

The Verdict

Come for Márton-nap if you want to eat a whole goose menu and taste a vintage on the weekend it is first poured. The best single day from Budapest is the Skanzen on November 14 or 15, with a goose lunch, a new wine tasting and a lantern walk at dusk. If you have a weekend, the wine regions do it bigger: Villány’s Bock festival on November 7, or Badacsony’s blessing on November 14 and its new wine tasting on November 21. If you have one free evening in the city, book Náncsi Néni and order the leg.

Sources: tradition from the Márton napja entry of the Magyar Néprajzi Lexikon at mek.oszk.hu. Skanzen festival program and menu at skanzen.hu; Náncsi Néni goose menu at nancsineni.hu; Rókusfalvy tasting in its webshop; Badacsony events on badacsony.com, the Márton-day festivities, the Rózsakő goose feast, the Folly Arborétum goose dinner, the new wine tasting and its tixa.hu tickets; Villány programs at villanyiborvidek.hu, the Bock festival at hotel.bock.hu and the lantern parade in the villany.hu calendar; Eger at visiteger.com and its Márton-nap 2026 listing; Gundel’s Márton-nap dates at gundel.hu and the Vasi Skanzen date at szombathelypont.hu. Event and menu pages checked on November 1, 2026; the lexicon entry read on October 26, 2026.

📱 Going for Márton-nap?

Goose menus change week to week and the late announcers publish in early November, so check the organizer’s own page, linked in the sources above, before you set off.

Related Articles

• Budapest in November: the month the city flips in the middle
• Hungarian food: the dishes to order and what they are
• Hungarian wine regions you can reach from Budapest
• Badacsony: wine, volcanic hills and the Káli Basin
• Villány and Siklós: red wine country in the far south
• Etyek: wine tasting half an hour from Budapest