Novák László Ferenc: Fejfa monográfia - Az Arany János Múzeum közleményei 16. (Nagykőrös, 2005)
III. Angol nyelvű összegezés
national Romanticism at the end of the 19th century. The grave marker called wooden hedboard which has become a specific national symbol traces back its original to military funeral pomp. At the „heroic age” i.e. in the period before the 18th century, battle insignia and military equipment like helmet, golden spurs, club, flag and the picking weapon, the spear played an important role in funeral ceremonies. Similarly to the pole of the back flag and the sword which were broken and thrown into the grave, the military equipment, spears on the church wall were demaged by armed warriors. It was a widespraed habit not only among Calvinists but also among Catholics that the spear decorated with flags war thrust into the burial mound as part of the funeral pomp (e.g. in the village of Atyha in the region of Sóvidék of Székely land). Consequently, some researches have supposed an evolutionary connection between the wooden grave post and the spear. They postulate that the wooden grave post used by Calvinists originates from the spear, and this is why it is also called wooden board. Howerer, this hypothesis does not hold out. As the well-known ethnographer, Károly Viski, demonstrated the ornamented wooden grave post did not develop from the stabbing weapon but from its holder. Thus the spear ceased in the first half of the 19th century paralel with the decline of the „military period” (age of heroes). However, they survived in the armed troops of Székely people who were border guards. They can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century.475 In many regions - as in the villages of Siklód, Küsmöd, Etéd, in the region of Sóvidék - spears and their holder totally disappeared and their grave marking funktion was assumed by tombstones. Carving of ornamented orbed wooden grave posts ceased, though, traditional grave marking endured in a peculiar form. One of the three coffin poles was stuck at the head and the two others at the feet of the grave mound (e.g. in the village of Siklód). However, they mark the graves only until they are replaced by a sepulchre as it used to be earlier, too. In the village of Csókfalva - there was no communal graveyard in the village. Everybady was buried on their estate, more exactly under the plum trees in the orchid at the end of the ground-plot. In this case, grave markers are tomstons. The communal graveyard was established above the village some decades ago. The coffin was taken there on three poles, which were thrust into the grave mound (one at the head and two at the feet). Coffin poles were stuck into the grave mound at the feet in other villages (e.g. in the village of Magyargyerőmonostor in Kalotaszeg county, in the villages of Tiszakiirt, Tiszaug, Tiszaszöllős near the Tisza river, in the villages of Artánd and Biharfélegyháza in Bihar county, in the villages of Magyarbőd and Nagyszalánc in Abaúj county). Later on, sepulchres out of ‘dignified’ stone were set up (e.g. in the village of Alsórákos near the Olt river). The spear with flags survived as a relict in the village of Korond in the region of Sóvidék. A black ribbon bound on a short wooden handle was fixed on top of the decoratively carved orbed wooden grave post. The Calvinist population of the village of Erdővidék in Háromszék used orbed wooden grave posts at the end of the 19th and in the first third of the 20lh century on a large scale. Calvinist graveyards looked like a real wooden headboard-forest. However, no little flags were fixed on the orbs to indicate that orbed grave markers were not genetic derivative of the spear. The use of orbed wooden grave posts fell into decay in the second half of the 20th century. Consequently, it can be that “military funeral pomp” has something to do with grave marking, though, ‘the wooden headboard’ as a grave marker does not have a genetic relationship to it. ‘Military funeral pomp’ persistently survived in the burial ritual of the younger generation. In north-east and north Hungary (the regions of Ung, Zemplén, Abaúj, Toma, Bars, Komárom, Pozsony) the custom still existed at the beginning of the 20lh century that two children (dressed in black Hungarian clothes with braiding, in hat and black boots) advanced at the head of the funeral procession, with a wooden sword in their hands. At the point of the sword, there was a lemon into which many colourful ribbons were stabbed (e.g. in the village of Nagykapos in the region of Ung). The wooden sword, the lemon, the club (in this case the symbol of the brides man-stick) and the 475 See Balázs ORBÁN, 1868.1.; Károly VISKY, 1910. 180
