A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historica 4. (Szeged, 2001)

KOVÁCS Lajos: A szegvári Falumúzeum létrejötte

Csongrád megyében még sok »szegvari Falumuzeum« létesül. Nem kívánhatunk jobbat, mint sok-sok Jaksa Jánost Csongrád megyének és az országnak, mert nélkülük nem létesülhetne falumúzeum a községekben. Gyűjtési tevékenységük felbecsülhetetlen, mert »éjfél előtt öt perccel« mentik meg az utókornak a magyar falusi, paraszti életmód emlékeit. Az utókor ezt sohasem felejti el nekik." A már ekkor nyugdíjas Jaksa János továbbra is lelkesen folytatta munkáját, hiszen nagy álma valósult meg az új múzeum létrejöttével. Szívből, szeretettel végezte az önként vállalt munkát. Munkáját elismerték a múzeumi szakemberek, a község lakói, a község vezetői is. A rendszerváltás után az önkormányzat utcát nevezett el róla. Eseményekben és eredményekben gazdag élete 1981-ben fejeződött be. LAJOS KOVÁCS THE FOUNDATION OF THE SZEGVÁR VILLAGE MUSEUM In 1947, committees — the so-called "Committees of '48" — were established throughout the country to organise the centenary celebrations of the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence. These were initiated by the Ministry of Religion and Public Education. In its order, the Ministry encouraged both teachers and students to undertake collection work. This local historic and ethnographic collection work was organised and managed by the Committees of '48. In Szegvár, teacher János Jaksa was responsible for organising the collection work in the village and surrounding farmsteads. In the space of a few months a considerable amount of quite valuable local historic and ethnographic material was accumulated. It was from this collection of material that the teacher held the first local historic and ethnographic exhibition, on March 14-15, 1948, which occupied all of the rooms of the former Civic Society building. As the people of Szegvár did not request the return of the antiques they had submitted for the exhibition, this material provided the basis for today's Village Museum. A great deal of investigation and preparation work preceded the establishment of the Village Museum. János Jaksa was born into a large, peasant farming family in Tömörkény, on December 27, 1904. Mr. Jaksa finished local elementary school, later obtaining his elementary schoolteacher's diploma at the Teacher's Training College of Kiskunfélegyháza. He went on to teach at the Árpádhalom School in Pusztaszer, becoming the first school Principal of that village. When Ferenc Móra, the writer and director of the Szeged Museum, was carrying out excavations in the same region, Mr. János Jaksa found a warm family welcome at his home. During the 1930's, farmstead and village teachers were given short, summer training courses on how to collect historic and intellectual ethnographic material from their surroundings as, even at this time, it appeared that such materials were already becoming rare. In 1941, Mr. Jaksa took up the position of a teacher in the village of Bajmok, which had then rejoined Bácska. Mr. and Mrs. János Jaksa moved to Szegvár on November 17, 1944. Mr. Jaksa, as Principal, was given large tasks to complete. The situation regarding village school education stabilised in the spring of 1945. The years he spent in Szegvár were interwoven with local historic and ethnographic collection work, the establishment of the Village Museum, the moving of the Village Museum to new premises, and its operation in its new location. On July 15, 1951, the first concept of establishing a Village Museum in Szegvár was put into writing at a local Council meeting. However, we had to wait a few years to celebrate its true birth. On July 25, 1954, on a Sunday morning, the Szegvár Village Museum was opened in the former Civic Society building at Hunyadi János utca 13. János Jaksa decided to name the Village Museum after Ferenc Móra, showing his respect for the writer, whose name he had to revoke at a later date.