Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 21. 1981 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1984)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Lukács László: Kakasütés a Dunántúlon. – Rooster beating in Transdanubia. p. 209–220. t. LXXIV–LXXVI.

Holiday Rooster Beating. On Ash Wednesday, the German youth of Mecseknádasd (Baranya County) went to the courtyard of the major restaurant, where they tied a rooster to a stake buried in the ground. Twenty steps from the rooster they blindfolded a young man, handed him a flail, led him around a barrel several times and set him in the direction of the rooster. It was the task of the blindfolded lad to reach the rooster and strike it dead. Whoever succeeded was considered hero of the day. After a successful blow, the young men paraded into the pub, accompanied by music, to make merry. Here they cooked and ate the rooster. According to statistics from the nineteenth century, Mecseknádasd was a German village. Its inhabitants arrived in 1718 from the Rhine region, Hessen, Alsace-Lorraine and Styria. On Ash Wednesday the young men of Pusztaszemes (Somogy County) bought a rooster and buried it up to its neck in the ground. They tried to strike the rooster dead with a stick while blindfolded. He who succeeded won the rooster. Pusztaszemes is listed as a German village in Elek Fényes's statistical work (1851); in the gazetteer of 1882 it figures as a Hungarian community. Regarding the distribution of nationalities among the population, we may accept the data, based on the 1910 census, to be found in the monograph on Somogy County published before the First World War. "Number of houses 65, of inhabitants 493, among whom 140 are Hungarian and 353 German speakers, primarily of the Roman Catholic faith.

.. In 1677 György Széchenyi, archibishop of Kalocsa, was awarded Pusztaszemes, at that time an uninhabited settlement. In 1733 it was still desolate and belonged to Count Zsigmond Széchenyi. The first inhabitants of the present community were settled there in 1778 by the stewardship of Count Széchenyi's family estate at Köröshegy. The first settlers were all Germans, some of whose descendants became assimilated Hungarians." We know of rooster beating at Carnival time by the German lads of Hidegkút from Károly Herkely's description. On Shrove Tuesday the lads bought a rooster; on Ash Wednesday they let the rooster go, chased it with sticks throughout the village and finally beat it to death. At the middle of the nineteenth century Hidegkút was a German village; by the end of the century it is considered German-Hungarian. Up until the Second World War the Slovak boys in Sóskút (Pest County) organized a three-day dance spree in the restaurant at the end of Carnival. The ringing of the bells at eleven on Shrove Tuesday night put an end to the ball, and to Carnival at the same time. The next day, Ash Wednesday morning, the young men went to the pub to play a masquerade. Two boys dressed up, one of whom was dressed as a woman. Both wore tattered clothing and masks. At the turn of the century, instead of wearing masks they smeared their faces with soot. Both of them carried a sizeable stick, and the one dressed as a man carried a basket on his arm. The boys of the village serenaded them on the street. Along the way, the boys teased and pawed the boy masquerading as a woman. The masquerade group stopped in on every house where girls lived. They demanded a price from the girls' parents for having escorted and danced the girls at the Carnival ball. As payment the parents put several eggs in the masqueraders' basket and offered the boys wine and brandy. Around three in the afternoon, following the masquerade, the lads set off for the rooster beating. This was the means for selecting the "First Lad" of the village, who was always selected from among the well-to-do and most honoured families of the community. It was always decided beforehand who would be chosen First Lad. The square alongside the church was the location of the rooster beating. They buried a live rooster or an empty wine-bottle in the ground; the neck of the rooster or bottle was visible above the ground. Several times during the 1930s they still buried a live rooster. Later on they only used a wine-bottle because the new priest of the village considered burying the rooster cruelty to animals and forbade it. After burying the rooster they started off the first boy from about fifty meters. He was blindfolded with a kerchief and carried a scythe or stick in his hand. Before sending him off, they turned him around two or three times blindfolded, so he could not find his bearings. Two or three byos stood alongside him directing him forward or backward, right and left. When he finally got close to the rooster, the boys who accompanied him held a thick stick in front of the rooster so that the blindfolded boy would beat that with the scythe. As a rule they started off twenty boys who did not succeed in beating the rooster

—to the amusement of the boys, children and curious adults. The aides only directed the boy chosen to be First Lad in such a way that he would hit the rooster with his scythe, or the neck of the wine-bottle with his stick. In fact, when blindfolding him, they would leave a small opening so he could see. After striking off the rooster's head, the new First Lad was carried on the shoulders of his friends to the pub. There they immediately adorned his hat with ribbons. In turn he bought wine and brandy for all the young men present and also had a number of barrels of wine brought from home. On this day the young men of the village could drink and make merry as long as they wished at the Fist Lad's cost. Not long after the rooster beating the First Lad invited the boys of the village to a wine-cellar party. It was his task to prepare and organize the dances all throughout the year. He engaged the musicians and opened the first dance at the balls. He paid the band from the proceeds. If the amount taken in did not cover the costs, he paid the difference out of his pocket. If, on the other hand, they made a profit, he distributed the difference among the ball's organizers and friends, or they spent it together on amusement. His office lasted until the following Ash Wednesday, when his successor won the authority by slaying the rooster. In Sóskút they last chose the First Lad by rooster beating in 1935. Slovaks settled in Sóskút from Esztergom, Komárom and Nyitra Counties in the first decades of the eighteenth century. In 1939 they organized a rooster beating on Mangled Thursday following Ash Wednesday for the initiation of László Szabó Réka as leader of a gypsy band in Köveskál. József Szabó Réka, a local gypsy musician, played with his four sons in an orchestra; his eldest son was initiated at that time as leader of the band. The event was performed within the framework of a symbolic wedding, where the leader-designate played the role of the groom. The gypsy to be initiated invited as his bride for the occasion a walthy girl and good dancer, Sára Györffy, and for his god-father the innkeeper, József Meckler. Two o'clock in the afternoon on Mangled Thursday the young people of the village gathered in the community's large pub. The girls dressed as best maids, the boys as best men. Before the start every best man chose a best maid for himself. Thirty pairs of best men and maids took part in the procession. The groom went to the chosen bride's home and escorted her to the gathering place. Besides the Réka family orchestra, a band arrived from nearby Kapolcs and from Tapolca. The entire village waited in front of the pub for the procession. Meanwhile boys got a rooster drunk by feeding it bread dunked in brandy. They tied the stunned animal by its feet to a stave decorated with two long ribbons. The wedding procession was lead by the bride and groom. They were followed by a pair of best men and maids. After them four lads carried the rooster tied to the staves, the same way as they carry Saint Michael's horse. They were followed by the rest of the attendants and the villagers. The musicians also took part in the procession, with violins and doublebass. They stopped on Henyei road in front of Gábor Molnár's pub. The square in front of the pub was the scene of the rooster beating. They tied a white apron on the groom and gave him the officer's sword of the local teacher. In front of the pub the old band leader announced in his opening remarks that today they will initiate the new leader of the orchestra. The god-father then spoke: "But only if he can cut off the rooster's head with one blow!" After the opening address the leaderdesignate cut off the rooster's head with one blow of the sword, whereupon the bands present struck up with great verve. Immediately they drank to the delight of the successful "cutting of the rooster neck" (kakasnyakvágás — local term for rooster beating), then proceeded on to the Meckler pub on Main Street. Here they removed the beheaded rooster from the staves and cooked it for the guest musicians. The participants of the rooster beating had a drink and danced in the Meckler restaurant, then returned home for dinner. The best maids invited the male attendants to dinner, in return for which the best men paid the girls' way to the ball that evening. At midnight all the par217