House Speaker: Mohács Busó Festival one of Europe’s biggest traditionalist events

The end-of-winter Busó festival in Mohács, in southern Hungary, is one of Europe’s biggest and most well-known traditionalist events, Parliamentary Speaker Laszló Kövér said in the festival’s main event in Mohács on Sunday.

In his address, Kövér noted that the 250-year-old tradition has been on UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2009.

“Our ancestors on this planet did not want to be prisoners of the strangeness, evil and darkness threatening their homes, so they dressed up as Busós in frightening costumes and banished everything that was a threat to them,” the house speaker said.

[box type=”info”] It is believed that the tradition of the sokác people of Mohács was first mentioned in 1783. The story recalls how their witty ancestors escaped to the Island of Mohács from the Turkish occupation. They put on costumes and returned on the river to surprise the superstitious Turks, who were appalled at the sight of the scary masquerade and fled from the city. [/box]

Köver called on “today’s Busós” to “banish everything bad that threatens Hungary, Europe and the well-intentioned people of the world”.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI