S. Lackovits Emőke: Az egyházi esztendő jeles napjai, ünnepi szokásai a bakonyi és Balaton- felvidéki falvakban (Veszprém, 2000)

Festivals, holidays and customs of the ecclesiastical year

monies in their honour. Nowadays however, these onetime great customs of the yearly holidays, apart from a few exceptions, no longer exist as living practices. February 3, St Blaise's day, falls in the time of carnival. This martyred holy bishop lived in the 3rd-4th century and his legend provides the basis for the „blessing of throats" with consecrated candles, i.e. the „blessing of Blaise" against throat troubles, in use since the 16th century. In Magyarpolány, where our film was taken, in the morning mass of St Blaise's day, the faithful come for the „blessing of Blaise." They follow each other to the altar, and stand in a half-circle. The priest stands before each one of the faithful in turn with a pair of candles which have been blessed and sprinkled with consecrated water, and they hold their heads in such a way that their necks come in between the two consecrated candles. Whoever receives the blessing, crosses himself and leaves the church, which therefore gradually empties. February 4 is Veronica's day. In several, particularly religious families in Magyarpolány, while washing their faces and reaching for a towel, they cross themselves and say an Our Father in honour of "Virgin St Veronica," because she reached a cloth to the Lord Jesus as He was sweating blood. The custom was filmed in Magyarpolány, in the home of Mrs János Németh Mária Kovács. According to tradition, Veronica was the woman (in several legends, the woman with the issue of blood healed by Jesus), who on the way of the cross, leading to Golgotha, reached a cloth to the Saviour, and thus preserved an impression of the face of the Lord, crowned with thorns. The cult of Veronica in Europe and the Hungarian language territory developed at the end of the Middle Ages; her cloth is typically depicted among the symbols of torture. April 25 is the day of St Mark the evangelist, the time of consecration of the wheat. On this day in ancient Rome, a procession together with the presentation of sacrifices was held in honour of the god Robigus, by which they attempted to preserve the crops from pests (rubigo = blight). The Christians already held the intercessory procession of Robigalia as their own in the 4th century. The oldest European data in connection with the consecration of crops date from the 9th and 11th centuries. Together with the Hungarian wheat-consecration procession, it has been known since the Middle Ages, but from the 1950s, it was banned to be held. Therefore, some of the first fruits of the wheat were taken to the church and laid on the altar, and the symbolic blessing of the crops was carried out in this way. Everyone took home a little of the sacrament. At our request, the wheat-consecration was held in Magyarpolány in the old way, and it was filmed. The ceremony begins in the church with litany, and afterwards the procession is formed. At the front, the crucifix decorated with flowers is carried by two altar boys, and behind, the church banners held by two girls. After them comes the priest, then the faithful, singing the litany of All Souls. They go to the wheat field which lies nearest the village, and stop at the edge. Turning to the four points of the compass, the priest reads from the four Gospels, which is followed by intercession. By this, they indicate that they are asking for the blessing of the Aimighty on all crops. Afterwards, the priest blesses the crop with the sign of the cross and consecrated water, which is valid for all the fields belonging to the