Mohács

The town is the southernmost settlement of Hungary along the Danube. One of the most important points of interest of the town, organised every year and visited by thousands of people, is the Busójárás, which was inscribed on the list of UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. Furthermore, the town is known for the battle of historical importance, the Battle of Mohács, fought on 29 August 1526 southward of the town, in the course of which the Hungarian army led by Captain Pál Tomori and King Louis II lost the battle against the overwhelming Ottoman power. The Battlefield Memorial Chapel, the monument and the sculpture of Louis II, as well as the Historical Memorial Park of Mohács commemorate our soldiers died for king and country.

Busójárás is the widely known tradition of the ethnic group of Mohács, the Sokci, its date is determined by the first full moon following the spring solstice. It is a tradition seeing winter off, greeting spring, bringing fruitfulness, belonging to the family of magic feasts, but the origin thereof is also explained with the legend of scaring away the Turks. Preparing objects connected to Busós is an important element of the tradition of Busójárás.

Several forms of traditional handicraft is present in the tradition. Similarly to the former traditions, a part of the Busós carve their masks used in the ritual by themselves even today. Sometimes they even carve several masks and change them every year to preserve their incognito. In Mohács, several people deal with carving masks as a handicraft profession in show workshops, where they present the carving of Busó masks from the first phase. From the 1970s there were three significant masters in this handicraft activity. According to the legend, the Sokci fled to the swamps of Mohács Island, since they were fed up with the subjugation, and they crossed the Danube with boats, wearing scary masks and using self-made noise-making tools, and scared the Turks away from Mohács.