Hungarian Busó Mask Carnival was organized in New Delhi, India – PHOTOS

 On Monday, 28^th February, 2022  the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre Delhi, organised a  festive carnival for the first time in India by having a Busó Mask Carnival, titled BuSHOW 2022,  at the laws of the Embassy of Hungary in India.  The event was curated by eminent artist Neeraj Mittra who has been closely associated with the activities of the  Hungarian Cultural Centre, Delhi,  for the last 20 years.

Busójárás is the season’s main event other than the fancy dressing and is held in the town of Mohács. According to legend, the festival is held to celebrate two things. The first is a successful attempt by the people of Mohács to scare away invading Turks. The story goes that during the Ottoman occupation, the local people were forced to flee the town and hide in nearby swamps. One stormy night, on the advice of an old Šokac man, one such group donned scary masks and returned to Mohács,

frightening the invading Turks away – who thought they were demons.

The festival is held to scare away winter and celebrate the arrival of spring. In 2009, the festival gained a place on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Described as “more than a social event,” Busójárás was included for its social and cultural importance. The Hungarikum Committee added the Mohácsi Busójárás, a masked end-of-winter tradition to the Collection of Hungarikums in 2012.

• Read also: Busójárás returns in 2022! — PHOTOS

Speaking to the reporters Ms. Mariann Erdő, Director and Cultural Counsellor at the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre, Delhi said that

“Hungarian culture is more than 1000 years old,

enriched by historical exchanges with other countries. We are proud of this cultural heritage and the mission of our cultural centre is to promote these values: historical events, food and drinks, buildings, traditions, inventions or landscapes. A significant part of them are considered Hungarikums – the collective term indicating the typically Hungarian attribute, uniqueness, speciality and quality of these cultural values.

One of these Hungarikums is the Busójárás. At this time of the year, Busós appear in the streets of Mohács, a small town in the southern part of Hungary and work hard to scare off the winter.

We hope that bringing them here by art works, photos and performances will take the Indian audience closer to Hungary and its culture.”

With participation from various Design and Art Schools from Delhi NCR like the Pearl Academy, IVS School of Design, IVS, NIFT and Jamia Millia Islamia, the show brought out brilliantly the essence of Busó to Delhi in the real sense. In all there were 26 installations.  The evening also included a dance performance by the Hashtag group.  The event was attended by the diplomats of different countries and a large number of invitees from various walks of life.

Read alsoThe scariest Hungarian tradition continues this year

Source: Author: Gopal Raj