Calendar bypass rites of Burgenland’s Croats in Hungary: history and reproduction

Abstract

The article deals with the calendar bypass rites of the Burgenland Croats of South-Western Hungary in the vicinity of the town of Szombathei and is based on ethnolinguistic field studies conducted in 2019. Special attention is paid to the processes of the interaction between and mutual influence of the coexisting Croatian and Hungarian languages, folklore, and ethnographic traditions. The role of the folk language used is shown, which is in some cases reproduced when recreating the ritual Christmas circumambulation. The researcher focuses on the history of the revival of the “shepherds” Christmas rite in the village of Narda and its surrounding villages - Felsőcsatár and Horvátlővő. Reconstruction of the elements of the Christmas “shepherds” showed that the persons taking part in the ritual who visit the houses in the village as “shepherds” act as “wonderful guests”. They are connecting the spheres of both “their own” and “alien” worlds, and become the object of sacralisation as representatives of some other world, who bring prosperity, success, and good luck to the owners of the house. At present, this archaic aspect of the circumambulation (which is reflected in the attributes of the maskers and the motifs of their songs) is preserved as a symbol, sign, or characteristic feature of the winter rite itself (the shepherd’s performance). The masks representing the characters of biblical history are characteristic (shepherds, angels), which fits into the broader context of the later Slavic tradition. The example of the Christmas rite of “shepherds” shows the linguistic and folklore polyglossia that is typical for this region, where Burgenland’s Croats live in a foreign-language and foreign-culture environment.