{"id":4802,"date":"2022-08-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rusynsociety.com\/?p=4802"},"modified":"2022-08-12T22:55:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T03:55:39","slug":"rusyn-day-in-komloska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rusynsociety.com\/rsk\/2022\/08\/13\/rusyn-day-in-komloska\/","title":{"rendered":"Rusyn Day in Koml\u00f3ska"},"content":{"rendered":"
It is early afternoon on a Saturday day in late July in Koml\u00f3ska, the only village in Hungary where Rusyns constitute a majority of residents. I came here to take part in the Rusyn Day by invitation of L\u00e1szl\u00f3 (Vasyl) Popovics, Head of the Local Rusyn Self-Government and a major Rusyn enthusiast in this general area of North-Eastern Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first mention of the castle in this locality (its leftovers referred to as Pusztav\u00e1r<\/em> or Solymos v\u00e1r<\/em> can still be found in the vicinity) dates back to the 14th<\/sup> century. The village itself was first mentioned in documents in 1396; it is said that Rusyns settled there in the 18th<\/sup> century, arriving from what now is the Slovak-Polish border region. The precise places from which they arrived are not known, yet the folk memory asserts that they were Lemkos \u2013 and their vernacular shows affinity to that of Slovak Rusyns (unlike the Rusyn dialect of Mucsony, the other of the two historically Rusyn communities in contemporary Hungary, who speak Pannonian Rusyn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Koml\u00f3ska is in fact one long dead-end street, so a rare public bus that comes from the neighbouring railway station has to take a U-turn by the stop called \u2018The Village Well\u2019 (and there really is a well marking the centre of the village) in order to proceed to other localities. Uphill there is a cemetery, divided into two parts \u2013 the farther that looks forlorn, with only occasional old stone crosses across what now has become a grassy meadow, is marked by a crucifix crafted in the folk primitive style.<\/p>\n\n\n
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On the opposite side of the field track, there is a fenced campus of the local Greek Catholic Church with a newer cemetery. Most of the family names of the people buried there are Slavic in origin: Szem\u00e1n, Korit\u00e1r, P\u00e1sztor, Popovics<\/em>; some are Hungarian: Kiss, Fekete, Lengyel<\/em>\u2026 All inscriptions are in Hungarian, save one which is probably the oldest surviving gravestone with the text in Cyrillic: it is almost impossible to make out the name of the person that is buried there; I was able to read only the name \u0406\u043e\u0430\u043d\u043d <\/em>(Ioann, etymologically equal to John), the words \u0434\u043e \u0433\u0440\u043e\u0431\u0443 \u0442\u0435\u043c\u043d\u0430\u0433\u043e<\/em> (\u2018to a dark coffin\u2019), and the abbreviation IC XC <\/em>that stands for \u2018Jesus Christ.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n
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According to Viktor Kramarenko, Head of Hungary\u2019s National Rusyn Self-Government, many Koml\u00f3ska families have spread to the neighbouring villages of Tolcsva, V\u00e1mos\u00fajfalu and Olaszliszka, and now ethnic Rusyns constitute a significant share of the local population in these areas. The existence of Greek Catholic temples proves that fact \u2013 and the conventional Slav abbreviation \u0406\u041d\u0426\u0406 <\/em>(stands for INRI \u2013 Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum<\/em>, i.e. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Jews<\/em>) can be seen on the roadside crucifix standing at the intersection of the road leading from the railway station to Koml\u00f3ska and the main road to S\u00e1rospatak and further to Slovakia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But let us go back to the churchyard in Koml\u00f3ska now. It is very quiet in this place \u2013 but the church door is open, with just a bench blocking the entrance. There is a note on the bench, saying: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDear Visitor, You may visit the church. The bench has been put here only to prevent animals from entering. Feel free to remove it to be able to enter, and when leaving please put it back. Thank you! Have a good time and a good day!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n
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And such a marvellous little nook that church is. One of the plaques hanging on the wall in the antechurch states in Old Slavonic that the temple was consecrated by the Bishop of Prja\u0161iv (the traditional Rusyn name for Pre\u0161ov, now in Slovakia) in 1903. After this then finally comes the interior that is gorgeous and at the same time cosy in that special rurally way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
There are prayer books lying on the pews (in Hungarian); the inscriptions on the icons (some of them were crafted in that primitive folk style) are in Hungarian, but the main abbreviations are in Old Slavonic; I did not dare enter the altar (there is no iconostasis in the church, like in most Greek Catholic temples in Hungary, Slovakia and other countries that might have been a sign of the prevailing Roman Catholic surrounding) where I saw an obviously old Bible \u2013 but the photo on the church\u2019s website proves that it is written in Old Slavonic.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nOn the right: a replica of the miracle-working Weeping Icon of M\u00e1riap\u00f3cs, the most revered Byzantine Catholic shrine of Hungary and of the Mukachevo Eparchy (the original icon is now located at St. Stephen\u2019s Cathedral in Vienna).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Later, when I left the church and began walking along the village street, I understood what feeling had been with me since I had left the bus near the village water well: it was as if you had found yourself back in a remote village of your childhood, where time had stopped and everything stood as it had from the very beginning\u2026 A bit later, I found other signs of this feeling: pieces of twisted wire to keep the household gates closed, old huts with a cross and the year they were built in shown on the fa\u00e7ade (and those houses looked absolutely like those you would see in Ukrainian Transcarpathia \u2013 either square cubes or prolonged with the narrow part looking at the street and a roofed veranda along the long backside) \u2013 and same calmness and quietness: it was not earlier than after a twenty-minutes walk that I met somebody in the street; and like in Transcarpathian villages, the passers-by said hello to me, a man whom they had never met before. In addition, my mobile phone network did not work in the village (later I was told that there is one national provider whose network does work there).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A peculiar feature of the village landscape are stonewalls with wooden doors on the roadside behind which wine cellars are hidden \u2013 one must not forget that Koml\u00f3ska lies just about a dozen kilometres from Tokaj, Hungary\u2019s wine capital, and is surrounded by vineyards (however, the village\u2019s grapevine plantations for some reason are not included into the Tokaj zone). And then there was a Rusyn nationality kindergarten \u2013 and again, nobody around and no locks on the gate. Fortunately, the kindergarten does work in Koml\u00f3ska, and L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Popovics says that the kids are taught Rusyn songs there. The fate of the Rusyn primary school, which once had been referred to as \u201cthe country\u2019s smallest school,\u201d was sadder: recently it was closed due to the lack of pupils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nThe plaque on the building of the former school in Koml\u00f3ska states in Hungarian and Rusyn that it is a Rusyn nationality school.<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime, I reached Rusyn Park, the venue of the Rusyn Day activities. At last, there were people in this village! The guests from Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Hungary were gathering for the festivity. The Rusyn Park has two stages \u2013 the open-air and the indoor ones, both painted to show the interior of a traditional Rusyn hut with the oven, embroidered cloths, icons (and again we can see there a replica of Our Lady of M\u00e1riap\u00f3cs that obviously, all Rusyn households had had it), family photographs and furniture.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nThe open-air stage at the Rusyn Park in Koml\u00f3ska.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\nThe inside stage backdrop at Rusyn Park.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
The main building of the Rusyn Park is decorated with the historical Rusyn tricolour with the national emblem (the Carpathian brown bear highlighting the scene) and a monument to Prince Francis R\u00e1k\u00f3czi II, who traditionally is considered to be a patron and protector of the Rusyn people.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The festival began with the St. Liturgy in Old Slavonic administered by Father Vasyl Boichuk (Vasile Boiciuc) from Peregu Mare (Velyky Pereg), Arad Region, Romania (this village is worth a separate article due to its multi-ethnicity \u2013 its 1,500-strong population consists of Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks and Czechs, Ukrainians and Rusyns, Germans and Roma). The traditional Byzantine acapella<\/em> singing was provided by women from Romania and Slovakia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then the song festival started. And it occurred that the same songs, same melodies are sung, played and known throughout Central Europe \u2013 in Slovakia and Ukraine, in Romania and Hungary: \u00ab\u0427\u043e\u0440\u043d\u0430 \u044f \u0441\u0438, \u0447\u043e\u0440\u043d\u0430\u00bb, \u00ab\u0417\u0430 \u043b\u0456\u0441\u043e\u043c, \u0437\u0430 \u043b\u0456\u0441\u043e\u043c\u00bb <\/em>and others. The audience welcomed folk choirs and dancers from Pre\u0161ov (Slovakia), Maramure\u015f and Arad (Romania), and the hosts \u2013 the Koml\u00f3ska Folk Song Choir\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n
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