Fraternity-Testvériség, 2009 (87. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)

2009-07-01 / 3. szám

When I first visited Hungary in the late ‘60’s with my husband, I bemoaned all the time we spent in cemeteries visiting deceased relatives and placing wreaths and flowers on graves. Then, in the ‘70’s, I discovered Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest and photographed its elaborate statuary for three days. Lately, I’ve found treasures in the Calvinist Cemeteries throughout the country for their epitaphs are memorable, their grave-posts display intricate folk motifs, and the cemeteries hold the remains of many of HRFA’s ancestors. Because I’ve spent so much time researching the significance of these Calvinist Cemeteries throughout Hungary, I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned.

“As for the cemetery, it is perhaps unrivaled of its kind. It is situated on a slope so steep that bodies have to be pulled up with ropes, especially in muddy weather. Well, when the trumpet of doom sounds, these poor folk will perform a frightful salto mortale before they reach their destined place. ”

Notes on a Journey by Sándor Petőfi (Gömör, 1845)

Only a few village cemeteries are still found in the same location they were originally erected. The majority of the Calvinist Cemeteries are more recent and have only been in existence during the last 150-200 years. One outstanding example of a cemetery continuously in use since the Middle Ages is the Calvinist Cemetery of Telkibánya (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County). Another is the churchyard of Csíkszenttamás (now in Romania) which lies around the church ruins on the outskirts of the village called Égettszer. In both settlements, the residential areas have gradually moved away from the church and the churchyard, which were formerly situated in the village center. A surprise to me was that in villages with larger populations, catastrophic cemeteries have been established for the victims of the cholera epidemic

in 1831 and for soldiers of both World Wars. Oftentimes, their names are also engraved on the family’s tombstone. In Égerszög and other villages, the First World War monument was erected in the garden surrounding the Calvinist Church. Among the Csángó people of Brassó County (Romania), the clothes of the fallen soldiers or of those who died far from home were either buried on a hill near the village or hung on trees nearby. This custom was practiced during World War I for the village inhabitants believed that if the clothes disappeared, the deceased had found his peace and his spirit would never return.

In Hungary, there is a general tendency to bury the dead on higher ground, which accounts perhaps for Petőfi’s observation in the above quotation. Especially in villages along the river Bodrog or in flood areas along the rivers Tisza and Dráva, burial places were on sandy hills relatively protected from the water. As the locals observed, at least

the dead are safely buried in a dry place since “when the flood comes, the living can flee, but the dead cannot.” Churchyards themselves have basically retained the order of interment found in the Middle Ages. The church itself, and later on, the chapel, is the structural, ritual and aesthetic center of the churchyard determining the order of the graves and the location of its paths. The Gothic style of the Calvinist church in Miskolc built on Avas Hill can be contrasted with the graves in the Calvinist cemetery of Telkibánya, built on Church Hill, which surround the church in concentric circles. Here, the inscriptions and the ornamentation are placed on the sides of the grave-posts and headboards which face the church. The graves of women and men are distinguished by a special slanted cut on the tops of the grave-posts; those slashes on women’s grave-posts slant toward the church while those on the men’s slant towards the village.

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