Ihász István - Pintér János szerk.: Történeti Muzeológiai Szemle: A Magyar Múzeumi Történész Társulat Évkönyve 6. (Budapest, 2006)

II. Módszertan - Műhely - Közlemények - Szabó István: A rákóczifalviak Rákóczi-tudata

times by newcomers, commemorate Ferenc Rákóczi II collectively in a way that could have awakened them to the consciousness of the significance of the historic personality in their communal life. The body of representatives held a ceremonial assembly on their 25th year of existence in 1906, at the time when the mortal remains of the prince were returned to Hungary. The 250th anniversary of the Rákóczi revolution was celebrated throughout the village in 1953, then in 1976 the 300th anniversary of the prince's birth-year gave an occasion for celebration. Preparing for the 300th anniversary of the birth of Ferenc Rákóczi II, in 1975 a survey was conducted in Rákóczifalva to reveal the image the people of the village have of Rákóczi and to ascertain what role is attributed to the historic person in the community's collective mind. The introduction of Rákóczi traditions and their consciousness of Rákóczi is dated to as late as 1882, the year when the village was resettled. If there is any memory or tradition to be revealed, that must have evolved after this period. The interviews recorded in 1975 were identical in every group of people. We might ascertain that local people by that time were on the way to form a unified community, or at least, the tendency was definitely felt. But their knowledge of Rákóczi was nothing more than what any other village community should know. Reasonably enough, as series of programs were organised on the 300th anniversary of the Rákóczi revolution, the idea to conduct a new survey was conceived, the results of which could be compared to the image the villagers had 30 years before. Therefore, the aim of the survey remained the same. For the second time again, we examined what characterises the Rákóczi consciousness among the people in Rákóczifalva, or to what extent they have absorbed the personality of the prince and the idea of his fight. In the last 30 years, have any kind of tradition connected to the prince evolved in the community bearing the historic person's name? Similarly to the previous survey, representative samples were taken from among people pursuing various occupations and of different age, but none of them being above the primary school education level. Furthermore, at this time too, we were focusing on the collective memory of the community and not on individual knowledge. We presumed that the celebrations of the 300th anniversaries, the school education and the Rákóczi celebrations organised regularly necessitated the creation of local traditions. The groups of questions posed previously were complemented: What celebrations were organised on the 300th anniversary of the prince's birth? Are there any programs connected to the name of Rákóczi regularly organised? Where do they take place and according to their opinion is any of them a peculiarity of the village bearing the name of the prince? The answers to the latter questions complemented our research conducted 30 years before. A significant proportion of the people asked hardly drew any parallel between what they heard and knew about Rákóczi and the history of their village. Elderly and young people alike mentioned names, events and kuruc songs that they encountered in their readings and school education. The transformation of collective knowledge was brought about by certain changes in their village that happened in the past few decades in Rákóczifalva and are connected to the name of the prince. These are as follows: The two storeyed school built in 1968 in the village was named Ferenc Rákóczi Primary School in 1991, and the settlement since then have given home to Rákóczi programs. On national and not local initiation were the anniversaries celebrated in the years 1953 and 1976. Since the 1980s, however, Rákóczi programs have been more regularly and consciously organised, mainly thanks to the role the school assumes. The local newspaper, issued between 1991 and 1996, titled Rákóczi Tárogató played a prominent role in maintaining the Rákóczi cult in the village. As the paper ceased publication, another paper took over its role under the title Rákóczi lap (Rákóczi paper), which is