Hungarian Heritage Review, 1988 (17. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1988-01-01 / 1. szám
Hungarian Arts attö (Krafts KOPJAFÁK These grave markers are called KOPJAFA — KOPJAFÁK in the plural — meaning “javelin-wood” or “javelin-shaft”, because originally it was the javelin itself that was driven into )\ I the ground at the head of the dead man, his own javelin, with all his deeds carved into the wooden shaft together with his name and the name of his clan, all in runic writing. While jn Western Hungary and on the Great Hungarian Plain the KOPJAFÁK were soon replaced by “good Christian headstones”, as one of the priests in Nagyvárad reported to his superiors in 1382, in the Transylvanian mountains the KOPJAFA survived up to the 19th century, and in some places, like Kalotaszeg and the Székelyland, even to the middle of the 20th century. In 1944 there were still six old hand-carved wooden churches standing in Transylvania, with the oldest dating back into the 15th century. Today, there are none. The communist authorities of Rumania declared these churches “unsafe” and ordered them torn down. The carved woodwork was burned, together with thousands of KOPJAFÁK, all over Transylvania in a zealous endeavor to eradicate the visible signs of the Hungarian past. From “The Transylvanian Hungarian Folk Art” compiled by Dr. Albert Wass JANUARY 1988 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 31
