S. Lackovits Emőke: Az egyházi esztendő jeles napjai, ünnepi szokásai a bakonyi és Balaton- felvidéki falvakban (Veszprém, 2000)

Festivals, holidays and customs of the ecclesiastical year

Festivals, holidays and customs of the ecclesiastical year The year is filled with a cycle of seasons, one following the other, which gives rhythm and completeness to the whole. The period of work is the feastless half year, whereas the section sprinkled with festivals is known as the half year of feasts. The changes of season within the cycle are at the same time the beginnings of quarters, to which a combination of rich customs and beliefs have always been linked within the cultic unit of the year. With the acceptance of Christianity, these lived on as the festivals of the saints, and are constantly subject to change. In order to oppose pagan influences and various heretical movements, over the centuries, the Christian year has been enriched with new feasts, but at the same time, the number has fallen for various reasons. Besides religious customs, pre-christian magical practices, prosperity spells and exorcisms were also linked to these special days, and they were also rich in means of weather prediction, which included rules with regard to work practices. Cyclical, rhythmical change also characterises the ecclesiastical or liturgical year, the supernatural cycle of which is the year of the Lord, with the events of the life of Christ and the history of redemption. It begins with advent, and lasts until the advent of the following year. Two main cycles of feasts are the periods of Christmas and Easter. Between them are to be found the Sundays of the year, various festivals of remembrance and weekdays. Every day is the feast of a certain saint. In the villages of the Bakony and the Balaton Uplands, as in the great majority of the rest of the Hungarian language territory, after the end of the Turkish occupation and the wars which followed it, around the beginning of the 18th century, the life of faith began to flourish, and forgotten as well as new religious customs began to take root. This is linked to the re-evangelisation of Hungary, as well as the rest of Europe. In our film, living religious and profane customs of the ecclesiastical year were immortalised in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 2000 in Herend, Kiscsősz, Magyarpolány, Raposka, Szentgál, Szentkirályszabadja and Vigántpetend, i.e. in the villages of the Bakony and the Balaton Uplands. The photographs of customs which have now died out date from 1930-1940 and 1980-1990. The more isolated settlements and the villages inhabited by Germans preserve their traditions more strongly than the others, so they have hung on to more customs and were still practising them in the 1990s. We should like to express our thanks to all the inhabitants of the villages listed above who provided help in support of our work, and whose selflessness enabled this film to be produced. We remember with reverence those who have since passed away. We owe special thanks to Mr Ferenc Ebel, the parish priest of