Today, for the twenty-sixth time, the St. Anne's Day palóc farewell was organized in Balassagyarmat. A few years ago, the event was supplemented with a folk art festival.
In the morning, the farewell procession in national costume started from the main Roman Catholic parish church to the Palóc grove. On the way, they said a prayer at the chapel of Sanda in the open-air collection of the Palóc Museum.
On the open-air Palóc stage, Archbishop Csaba Ternyák of Eger and parish priest Canon János Turai presented a celebratory mass, and at the end of the ceremony, the bishop blessed the families. The St. Felicián Choir of Balassagyarmat, conducted by Major Zsolt J. Unterwéger, participated in the liturgy; István Holecz, master of folk art; the Rimóci Rezesbanda and the traditionalists of the historic Nógrád county.
The Palóc farewell serves as an important anchor for living and maintaining Christianity, Hungarianness and Palóc identity. In connection with the farewell, Paloc Traditions Days were held in the second half of the week.
The opening event of the event stream was the presentation of the play The Black Rooster at the Mikszáth Kálmán Cultural Center. The Fabók Mancsi Puppet Theater's performance for adults is supported by the Déryné Program. On Friday, the ethnographic researcher Imre Harangozó's photo exhibition titled Bé van a lékle zázva was opened in the Serbian Church Gallery.
A Folkliget was created in the Palóc grove on Saturday, with a flea market, folk games, craft demonstrations, and handicrafts. Buják, Kétbodony and Nógrádsipek were among the villages of Palóc, and visitors could taste the delicacies of Palóc cuisine, Buják cakes, plum dumplings from Kétbodony, or Slovak colonial haluska.
In the religious culture of the Palócs, Saint Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, is the patroness of the barren, those in the blessed state and those suffering from female diseases. Saint Anne is revered as the hope of those waiting for the blessing of children, as the patron saint of families and as the patron saint of a good death.
Source and image: MTI
