Szabadfalvi József szerk.: Néprajzi tanulmányok a Zempléni-hegyvidékről (A miskolci Herman Ottó Múzeum néprajzi kiadványai 10. Miskolc, 1965)

Bartha Elek: A szentelmények szerepe Komlóska néphagyományában

ROLE OF SACRAMENTS IN KOMLÓSKA (Abstract) The sacraments used to play an important role throughout the history of Christian religious practice. Since the middle of our century this role has been decreasing in Hungary, though some varieties are surviving in the more archaic folk communities. The Hungarian ethnographic technical literature has payed little attention to the research of sacraments, only some minor publications have appeared. In the village we are concerned, the Uniate Komlóska, the sacraments are used by the whole community. The material sacraments, like consecrated water, willow twig, candle, wheat, grass and „prosfora" (non-consecrated bread used during Uniate mass), are applied against deseases and harm. The consecrated food is gaining more and more symbolic importance. The consecration ceremonies are aiming at protection against harm. Such ceremonies are the blessing of the houses at Twelfth-day, the blessing of school-children and of those setting out on journey and the sacration of the tomb-stones. The sacraments in Komlóska stand in the centre of feasts attached to them; the folk image, rarely sensitive to abstraction, often feels closer to the importance of the feasts through the sacraments. The change in the way of life limited the possibility of taking part in consecration liturgies, that caused decrease in need for using sacraments. It means a change in religious feeling, and not its cessation. The observation of the local traditions show, that the basic and archaic elements of religious practice of the folk are regressing. Elek Bartha 318