TITLE: Busójárás Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Europe
COUNTRY: Hungary
SUBREGION: Mohács
ETHNICITY: Šokci
DESCRIPTION: Large Busó mask
CATALOG ID: EUHU001
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Busójárás (Farsang)
AGE: 1960s-1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: ram horns; plant fiber; string; pigment
Busójárás is the Hungarian festival held annually in Mohács to celebrate the end of winter. Although the event has a pre-Christian origin as a ritual to frighten away the winter, it has been adapted to coincide with Christian ideology and timed to end with Carnival (Farsang). Masqueraders parade in devil masks of the kind shown here, wearing goat-skin suits and carrying staves or playing traditional folk music.
