Sárospataki Füzetek 21. (2017)

2017 / 2. szám - ARTICLES-STUDIEN - INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE SINCE THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION-INTERKULTURELLER DIALOG SEIT DER REFORMATION - Nagy Károly Zsolt: Leaving a Mark: The calvinist landscapes of remembrance

Leaving a Mark: The Calvinist Landscapes of Remembrance

of objects, but especially for paramenia, that they are donates on the occasion of specific life events. The process of the donation is often almost ritualistically regulated: the donor usually makes preliminary arrangements about the event and the Biblical quotation with the pastor.13 14 The pastor presents the fact of the donation to the congregation, and they present the drapery to the community before putting it into use. After it is put into use, especially where the community owns several such objects, the drapery, based on its nature, is either put on the wall, or it is included in the specific “order” of the table cloths and clothing used to decorate the Lord’s table. This order is organized according to days of celebration or some other kind of logic, but in many places the donated tablecloths are just placed on one another, and so ten or even fifteen table cloths may be in use at the same time. In the case of the communion vessels, the peculiar form of donation is to renew each object by the gracious donations of the consecutive generations of often the same family from time to time. For example, the first generation has a tin cup made; the next generation has it turned into a chalice; the following generation exchanges the tin cuppau for a silver one, so that, again, the next generation could leave a certain amount of gold to the congregation in order to have the silver cuppa coated with gold. In these cases it may happen that the inscription placed on the object, commemorating the fact of the donation by the previous generation, is expanded by the descendants with their own message, many times noting that the sons did this or that for the glory of God and the memory of the fathers.

Eva Szacsvay calls these clenodia and paramenia “preaching objects”, as the inscriptions put on them interpret the personal life events through Biblical quotations, or possibly express personal confessions.15 However, these objects have another function as well, besides the one of confessional or religious representation. Namely, as during a communion the sons, and their sons and daughters, to many generations (as well as the relatives, friends, and other members of the local community network) come into personal contact with them, they are especially susceptible for being the expressions and tools of the bonding with, the commitment to, and of course the representation of the community. This is similar for the draperies as well. The objects donated in connection with personal life events or crises may be interpreted as forms of confession on the one hand, while — being on display continually - they also express the religious commitment of the donating individual or family, together with the communal status, which is based on the symbolic

13 As far as I know, no inquiry has been made on the circle of Biblical quotations selected by each community, with the possibly related family traditions, while I find it to be one of the most exciting questions of the whole topic.

14 The upper part of the chalice, the drinking cup, where the wine is contained.

15 Éva Szacsvay: „...Isten ditsősegere adta....”: Református egyházművészet - népművészet, in Attila Selmeczi Kovács (szerk.): Lélek és élet: Ünnepi kötet S. Lackovits Emőke tiszteletére, Veszprém, Veszprém Megyei Múzeumi Igazgatóság, 2006,73-82; idem: Kegyes adományok: tipológia és topográfia. (A bánffyhunyadi templom térszimbolikájához), Acta Ethnologica Danubiana, IX. évf., 2007/8-9, 59-78.

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