Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1979 (7. évfolyam, 19-22. szám)
1979 / 21. szám
HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER No. 21 ISSN: 0194-164X Autumn 1979 Published by the Hungarian Research Center of the American Hungarian Foundation in four numbers as three issues annually: Winter, Spring (two numbers included), and Autumn. Founder and editor: Bela Charles Maday. Journal editor: Enikő Molnár Basa. Corresponding editor: Lorant Czigany (London). Communications concerning content should be addressed to the Editor, 4528-49th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20016. Communications concerning subscriptions, advertising, and circulation should be addressed to American Hungarian Foundation, 177 Somerset Street, P.Ó. Box 1084, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Annual subscription in the U.S.: $4.00: ABROAD: $5.00. Current single copy $1.50; back issues $2.00 each. BOOKS Bangó', Jenő F. THE PILGRIMAGE IN HUNGARY. Ungarisches Kirchensoziologisches Institut, 1140 Wien, Linzerstrasse 263/18, Austria, 1976. UKI-Reports About Hungary, no. 1976/1,2, and 3. General editors: Julius Morel and Emmerich András. 169 pages, map, table, biblio, n.p. paper. This is a systematic study of pilgrimage (búcsú) in Hungary. It explains that the original meaning of the word was penance, thus, búcsújárás meant "go to do penance" or make a pilgrimage. Another meaning of búcsú is “the consecration of a church or the feast commemorating such a consecration.” In discussing the phenomena of pilgrimages, the author says that such events in Hungary today take on the form of a mass demonstration with the participation of 5,000 to 15,000 people in each. Accordingly, it is estimated that some one million people participate in pilgrimages annually, though this figure may express some duplication of attendance. In any case, it means that about every sixth Roman Catholic becomes part of such events each year. After discussing the historical background to the development of pilgrimages, the author systematically covers 50 active pilgrime shrines in Hungary, giving a detailed description of their character, function and present-day significance. This is followed by a comprehensive statistical table, interpretation and evaluation of the data in the table, and socioreligious observations. In the analysis, the author estimates that about 50% of the participants in pilgrimages are women, 30% are men, and about 20% are children. As to the social background of participants, 40% come from rural areas, 50% from urban quarters, and 10% from abroad. She also observes that the collective milieu in which citizens of socialist societies live has not weakened but rather strengthened group pilgrimages, i.e. “for persons living in an atmosphere of socialism, pilgrimage has become a communal act.” The pilgrim groups exhibit the tendency of transforming themselves into Gemeinschafts. A genuine pilgrimage as a “meeting” constitutes a form of social communication, as a “participation" it is a form of religious communication. Ferenc Shramm in his paper on Búcsújárás Magyarországon [Pilgrimaging in Hungary] Teológia 2(1968) is presently working on a bibliography of pilgrimaging which may have over 5,000 entries. Dómján, Evelyn A. comp. PACATUS: a Trade-Mark from Antiquity. Domja'n Studio, Tuxedo Park, NY 10987, 1979. 79 pages, biography, list of exhibit, illus. $12.50 cloth. It is difficult to characterize this volume with any other adjective but “beautiful.” Its 12 full-page wood-cuts (and some 33 minor illustrations) are beautiful, and so is the text, which is a transcript of a lecture on art and industry delivered by “the Master of the Color Wooducts,” Joseph Domja'n, at a UNESCO Round Table in Paris in 1979. Pacatus was the name of the owner of a brick factory in ancient Aquincum. Its trademark, a running chicken enclosed in a free-form contour-shape, was pressed into each brick the factory produced. But art and industry relationship can be traced throughout history, and Domja'n does it in the text. One of the outstanding historical examples used is that of the Bibliotheca Corviniana, the library of King Mathias Corvinus. Domja'n says that the humanist Bartolomeo della Fonté in 1489 praised Lorenzo de'Medici for “building his Greek and Latin library on the shining example of Bibliotheca Corviniana, the greatest humanist library North of the Alps.” In the epilogue, Domja'n says, “To build Acquincum, there was the brick factory, but also the nameless designer of the trademark of the running chicken, the brick-layers, the architect, sculptors, artists, mosaic-makers; jointly they built Acquincum, Rome, their cities, their world- jointly we have to build ours - the civilization of today and tomorrow.” Appended to the volume are a list of places where Domja'n’s work is exhibited, a bibliography of works about the master and his work, books of his work; and a biography. SECOND BANFF CONFERENCE ON CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES, Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta, March 2-5,1978. Comp, by the Banff Conference Secretariat under the direction of Conference Chairman Dr. Metro Gulutsan. 308 Athabasca Hall, U. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E8, Canada, 1978. Four volumes, pp. 1/193, 11/185, 111/184, IV/139. First vol. includes illus. $5.00 per volume, paper. These over 600 xeroxed pages constitute the transcripts of the conference proceedings. In a preface to the four volumes, Gulutsan (who died in an auto accident in April 1979) says the unedited papers and presentations are collected into the following themes: Literary; Education; General Academic - Canadian; and General Academic - European. Actually, he considered them working papers in the preparation of a publication based on the conference presentation. The first volume includes pictures of participants, a committee roster, a record of the opening session, and appendices with lists of participants, presentations, and the minutes of the 1978 annual meeting of the Central and East European Studies Assoc, of Canada. The same volume contains two papers of Hungarian relevance. Martin L. Kovács, U. of Regina, presented a paper on Some Early Hungarian Canadian Literary Gems of Saskatchewan (pp. 55-85) in which he discusses the Hungarian influx to Canada with special attention to the settlement in Bekevar early in this century. His approach is anthropological and contains good many examples of folk literature and cultural change. The other paper is that of John Miska, Lethbridge Library, Canada, on Hungarian Poetry in Canada (pp, 140-148). He says that Hungarian poetry is experiencing a renaissance in Canada. In compiling a bibliography on Hungarian literary activities, he found over 300 citations of Hungarian materials, produced by some 57 authors. Vol. II, has two relevant presentations. Andor J. Tari writes on Characteristic Features of Present Day Approaches to Early Childhood Care and Education in Hungary (pp. 137-149). He describes child care and (Continued on Page 3) 2 NO. 21, 1979, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
