Szabadfalvi József szerk.: Néprajzi tanulmányok a Zempléni-hegyvidékről (A miskolci Herman Ottó Múzeum néprajzi kiadványai 10. Miskolc, 1965)

Nádasi Éva: A búcsújárás szokásai Mogyoróskán

The aim of pilgrimage is purification, request for blessing and gaining remission of sins. According to religious beliefs, its manifestation is the „touching", that is the appearance before the picture to which miraculous quantities are attributed. The „offering", that is the symbolical offering of the sick praying for help, is also among the characteristic customs of the high feast. Figures of wax, perhaps of precious metals, illustrating parts of the body or domestic animals are, in the same time, donations for the church. The high feast, besides spiritual penitence, means the way of preserving interethnical relationship, since people from different parts of the country meet on such an occasion. The parish-feast means change in the usual way of life, new informations, experience long remembered, and souvenirs preserved for a long time. Pilgrimage can be motivated, besides purification, also by the common need of religiosity of the people, the love of spontaneous manifestation, longing for something strange, unusual, and also by special reasons (pray for recovery etc.). The poetic vein of the folksoul appears in the world of miracles and legends. On place of worship they feel themselves close to god, where pangs are eased and harms are remedied, at least in the spirit. Éva Nádasi 334