Bárth János (szerk.): Szavak szivárványa. A 6. Duna-Tisza közi nemzetközi néprajzi nemzetiségkutató konferencia (Baja, 2005. július 13-14.) előadásai (Baja - Kecskemét, 2006)

Matuska Márton: Így ért véget a kóringyálás

Márton Matuska The way a folk custom, kóringyálás died out- Summary -Since the beginning of 1945 it is only Serbs who live in three villages, the population of which included people of different nationailties. According to the 1910 census the total population of the three villages was 21783, of which 4858 were Hungarians, 1347 Germans, and the majority, 15381 Serbians. The Hungarians of the three villages lived a lively cultural life. The engine of the Hungarian social life in Csurog was a Catholic priest, Bálint Dupp. Péter Kálmán, the celebrated representative of the 20th century Munich school of painting was bom in Zsablya at the end of the 19th century. Lajos Quotidián, the parish priest of the small Hungarian community of Mozsor founded Hitélet, the most popular Hungarian Catholic periodical of the interwar period. According to the data of the 2002 census the total number of the population is 21243, of which 182 are Hungarians, 9 Germans, and 19550 Serbs. At the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945 in the three villages 911 people were executed. Their names have been documented. The rest were debarred from their rights, dispossessed of their property and expelled from the village. Bálint Dupp was among the victims, as well as István Köves, descendant of Lajos Quotidián. The majority of the Germans fled at the end of 1944, the rest was expelled, similarly to the Hungarians.

In all three townships there was a folk custom practiced at Christmas time, called kóringyálás by the Hungarians and called similarly by the Serbs. The point of this custom was that during the Hungarian and Gennan Christmas the Serbian young people greeted the celebrants, and the Hungarian and German youth did the same during the Serbian Christmas: they were singing in front of the Houses where Christmas was celebrated, after which they were invited in the house and given a holiday treat.

With the disappearance of the Hungarians and the Germans this folk custom disappeared as well.

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