Paládi-Kovács Attila: A Barkóság és népe (Borsodi Kismonográfiák 15. Miskolc, 1982)

"""lie villages based on the old clan system, on a common ancestor, and the multi-generation family which had lived in close community began to loosen their ties beginning with the 1900s. The communities of families including joint ownership disappeared completely in the 1940s. Up until 1920 their custom as regards inheritance was inheritance by the male line, which was then changed to the principle of equal division of property. Since then the girls receive a share of the land and the house equal to that of the boys. They have a rich terminology for kinship which has a classification nature as do those of the other Hungarian ethnic groups. Birth, wedding and funeral customs reinforce kinship bonds among the whole peasant community, which include not only blood relatives but relatives by marriage or in other ways (godparents, in-laws), and neighbours. This chapter gives a detail d description of the customs in social life which have changed very little in the past one hundred years. It points out that while giving up certain rites the meaning of which has become unclear, somewhere between the 1950s and 1970s, hosting guests and celebrations has reached unprecidented heights and the stress at them has shifted from spiritual and cultic manifestations to material ones. Gifts have become more expensive, wedding feasts cost more, more guests are invited to the wedding feasts than there used to be (the godmothers taking dinner to young women who have just given birih are accompanied by 5—6 other women). 9. The Barkó ethnic group belongs to the Roman Catholic church and follows its calendar. Wintei customs include a rich stock of customs to end and begin the year. St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30) begins the year for the iic^men and St. Nicholas' dav (Dec. 6) is when it is customary to give gifts to children. Luca {Dec. 13) is the day of the „wicked spirits" when spinning is forbidden. This is the day when they begin to carve a stool known as the Luca Chair. In the days preceeding Christmas they begin to walk from house to house in the village with the Bethlehem (a tiny model of a créche), in groups of six tö ten people. They do not use puppets to present the Nativity. By the 1960s these plays with their text so rich in folk meaning were only kept alive by school-aged children. There was no such thing as a Christmas tree before 1914, and it has only become popular since then. At the end of the Carneval season the young people organize a three day celebration. The boys distribute the roles and they all march along the main street of the village. They very often wear masks depicting animals and ramheads. At the very end of the celebration they declare one of the boys to be a prisoner, whom they package in straw and lead around in chains. After reading out all his crimes they imitate the decapitation with a wooden sword (Fig. 71 J. This 194