Customs not Tied to the Calendar Year

In this book we have already dealt at several places with the customs not tied to specific dates. At this point we call attention only to customs that were not mentioned at all or mentioned from another point of view.

The spring inspection of landmarks (határjárás) took place when the snow had already melted but the spring work had not yet begun. The leader of the village and the representatives of the landlord participated, but they also took with them a few old men blessed with good memory, and a few young men who would be witnesses in the future. One of the most important tasks of the land inspectors is to verify precisely boundaries, boundary mounds, and boundary stories. These often are altered by individuals or even entire villages in accord with their interest, in order to increase their own land holdings by doing so. At such times the boundaries have to be reestablished. The young people raised a mound at the meeting point of the boundaries and perhaps put a stone on top of it. At the conclusion of the work the youngest were lifted off their ten toes and beaten soundly with a switch so that they would be able to remember the spot even in their old age.

In some places people were not satisfied with mounds alone but also drew a ditch around the village boundary with a plough. This custom survived the longest in Kalotaszeg, where in Körösfő, eight pairs of buffalo pulled the huge boundary marking plough, which was three metres long. They took the plough out in early May, amidst much celebrating. All the people of the village, great and small, followed it in their Sunday best. The more prosperous farmers provided the buffalos and two selected young men held the plough handles. Then ploughing began, followed finally by a toast.

The toast (áldomás, “wetting the bargain”) (cf. pp. 117–8), is the concluding act of bigger work and more significant sales and purchases. It usually consists of treating with food and drink. The one for whom the work was done, or the disposer, provides for this, and not only can the buyer count on it but generally even those who participated either officially or as helpers. Thus, for example, the “cup of the law” (törvénypohár) was due also to the members of the council in Tokaj-Hegyalja, when the selling of a vineyard was registered.

{660.} We also know of customs by which the community tries to maintain its own laws. Such are, among others, the zángozás or kongózás, known in certain villages of Bihar County. If a married couple divorce and then move back together again, or if a couple live together without marriage, or if they are unfaithful to each other, a large group of people go to their window. They make a public announcement, amidst much bell ringing and shouting, of all the sins the couple have committed or are believed to have committed. Another way of expressing public opinion is a mock wedding, and the “clergyman” shouts out, in an unprintable fashion, all the things attributed to the married couple. Such serious insults may result in physical violence, while the offended couple might prefer to move out of the village rather than to tolerate such ridicule from the community.

Numerous customs are attached to the building of a house. When the top of the wall is reached, a garland is pinned up, and then the farmer treats the builders. The practice of a building sacrifice has already been illustrated in one of the most beautiful ballads (cf. pp. 524–7). A more gentle version of such a sacrifice is the placing of a lock of hair into the building, as was done in one of the medieval buildings of Eger’s fortress. Nowadays, when old houses are demolished, the walling in of smaller and larger animals often are brought to light. Sometimes these were buried under the threshold. Building sacrifices are often mentioned, especially in Transylvania, not only in regard to peasant houses but to castles as well. Thus, when the castle of the lord at Gerend (former Torda-Aranyos County) was built, the masons noticed with dismay that the walls were cracking and crumbling at some places. They thought that walling in a few sheep or a calf would stop the crumbling, but the miserly lord was unwilling to provide for this, saying it was not in the contract. What was to be done? The poor masons caught a dog and a cat nearby and walled those into the new building. Although in this way they assured the solidity of the walls, the family of the count consequently quarelled like cats and dogs, and there was no blessing on the inhabitants of the castle–so says a local legend.

Recruiting (sorozás) was a great event in every village after the introduction of general compulsory military service in 1868 (cf. pp. 500–4). People prepared for this well ahead of time. The young men decked their hats with ribbons and went to the nearby town or larger village together on a cart, where they had to appear in front of the recruiting committee. On the way they sang a recruiting song:

Szeged town has such a yellow County Hall,

There I go for military overhaul.

On the floor I throw my knickers, shirt and all,

As I face the officers, my tears do fall.

This inspecting doctor he is such a crook,

For he found me fit and saw no fault to book;

One fault you can certainly find, come and touch:

Here this heart for lover mine aches very much.

Szeged (Csongrád County)

{661.} Those who proved fit for military service arrived back in the village amidst much singing, while those who were unfit slunk home one by one under cover of the gardens, because no matter how miserable the three years of military service were, still they were ashamed of being unfit for it. Time for joining up came in the autumn, when there was a big farewell ball. The women and girls accompanied their sons and lovers to the nearest railway station and lamented them as if they had died. The young men took leave with songs like this:

Three times does the cart in the yard turn about:

Mother, mother, will you bring my kit-box out!

Bring it also, bring it to me my call-up card,

Nagykászon forgets me soon as I depart.

Mother dear, please, grieve not for me, shed no tear,

Go back home and rear my little brother dear!

Let him be an able-bodied fighting jack,

Bold hussar who never falls from horse’s back.

Kászon (former Csík County)

We have already spoken of ecclesiastical customs (cf. pp. 104–9) above. Here we need only mention the blessing of the fields in the spring (határszentelés), practised only by Catholics (cf. Ill. 38). The procession marched singing and carrying flags to the field, trying to assure a good harvest in this way, and the successful gathering of the crop.

The grown children’s acceptance into the Church took place with a certain festivity and in folk style. The Catholics decorate the church with green boughs and flowers for First Communion (első áldozás) and Confirmation, and on both occasions the boys get a bouquet to pin on their chests, the girls a wreath of flowers, and then the godparents give them further gifts. After Confirmation (konfirmálás), the Protestants in many places thank the clergyman for the preparation and the initiation of the children into the teachings of the Church and give him small gifts: flower baskets, a few red-coloured eggs.

Certain forms of selecting the Queen of Whitsuntide (cf. p. 647) survived longer among Church customs. The ornately dressed Matyó “Daughters of Mary” may be regarded as such. Their dresses, made for the occasion, increased the festive splendour of the holidays. Such were also the “rose-girls”, among whom the clergyman designated a queen and whose head was adorned with a garland of roses or wheat. In the evening a dance was organized in her honour, and afterwards they all accompanied her home and at this time gave her money they had collected for her dowry.

The guilds (cf. p. 91) preserved numerous customs, primarily the dance gatherings, which were called lakozás in Baja and were generally held around Carnival time. People went to Mass early in the morning, and then the journeymen marched out with the flags and emblems of the guild and invited the masters and their families, amidst loud music-playing. In the afternoon they gathered where the emblems were kept, and the masters offered wine to the journeymen. Afterwards they went together to the scene of the entertainment and placed their emblems in {662.} the hall where it was to take place. Here by late afternoon they were already dancing, but the ceremonious customs really started with dinner at eight o’clock. The kitchen master tapped the door frame with a stick mounted with bells and in this way announced the next course to the accompaniment of a poem, just as though he were the first best man at a wedding. Such parties lasted until noon the next day, but at more prosperous guilds, such as, for example, the millers’, it often lasted for two days.