W is for Watermelon Divination (WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales)

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge titled WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales! You can find all other participating blogs on the A to Z Challenge main blog.

This fun moment is a part of a longer folktale, titled The Tale of Peter, collected from Sâncraiu de Mureș (Marosszentkirály), Romania.

This tale begins with the son of a shoemaker (Péter), and the youngest daughter of a king (Anka) going to school together. They fall in love as they grow up together, and Anka decides that she wants to marry Péter and no one else. So, she goes to her two sisters, and tells them she wants to get married. Eventually, she convinces them to go to the king, and tell him that they are all old enough to find husbands.
The king, however, is not quite on board with the idea of giving away his daughters so soon (they grow up so fast!). So, he gives all three a coin, and tells them to go buy a watermelon. When the girls come home with their watermelons, the king cuts each watermelon open, to see how ripe it is. The first watermelon is overripe. "You should have married three years ago!" The second is overripe too. "You should have married last year!" The third one, Anka's, is just ripe enough. "You should get married this year!"

Of course, the king does not want his daughter to marry the son of the shoemaker, so Péter has to go off first, have all kinds of adventures, and become a king, before he can come back and elope with Anka. All is well in the end, of course.

Bonus info: According to Hungarian belief, watermelons are really only good until September 5th, the feast of St. Lawrence. That is why we say that "St. Lawrence pees in the watermelons." And spoils them.