Ár­pád Bagin: A New Ethno­graph­ic Phe­nom­e­non in East-Central Europe? The Hal­loween and the Prepa­ra­tion of Pump­kin Dum­mies at a Ter­ri­to­ry of the Low­lands in Ógyal­la

The author, join­ing the research pro­ject of the Fo­rum Insti­tute – that pro­vides research of minor­i­ty – titled Pop­u­lar Cul­ture 1990–2005 delt with Hal­loween and main­ly with the cus­tom of pump­kin dummy prepa­ra­tion.

The author observed sev­er­al influ­ence at the exam­ined ter­ri­to­ry: between insti­tu­tion-in­sti­tu­tion (vis­it­ing exhi­bi­tion­s), insti­tu­tion-­fam­i­ly (for exam­ple a fam­i­ly influ­enced by a kinder­garten prog­ram pre­pares a pump­kin dummy in its home­), fam­i­ly-­fam­i­ly (no­tice the exhib­it­ed work­s), there can be even influ­ence of difer­ent inten­si­ty with­in the fam­i­ly. The pump­kin can be from own gar­den (there are some who grow pump­kins espe­cial­ly for this pur­pose), from grand­par­ents’, rel­a­tives’, friend­s’, and neigh­bours’ gar­den. They illus­trate, de­sign dif­fer­ent things, form­s, even expe­ri­ence of many years can help in it. When pre­pa­ring, they draw a pat­tern (with a knife, pen­cil, etc.) on the pump­kin. Pump­king prepa­ra­tion is a form of enter­tain­ment that can last for approx. half an hour, but even longer. The seed of the pump­kin can be used, eat­en, at the insti­tu­tion they are glued on sheets of draw­ing paper. The pump­kin dummy can then be displa­yed (gen­er­al­ly in case of insti­tu­tion­s) for months (for exam­ple to Jan­u­ary of the next year!).
In insti­tu­tions (but also in house­hold­s) sev­er­al dec­o­rat­ing ele­ments can be used (hat, yarn, etc.), and it is also pos­si­ble to paint on the pump­kin dum­my. It is also pres­ent and main­ly in the case of insti­tu­tions that the size of the pump­kin is com­pared with the one from the pre­vi­ous year, it is then stat­ed in which year grew big­ger pump­kin­s. The eyes and the noses are gen­er­al­ly of tri­an­gu­lar form, but they also vary, the eye holes can be cir­cu­lar and square, too. In the insi­tu­tions pic­tures are made from the sev­er­al stages of the process of hol­low­ing out the pump­kind­s. In the cir­cles of the Slo­vaks even the expres­sion of spook (but also jack-­o-lantern) is pre­sen­t, Hun­gar­i­ans gen­er­al­ly call the pump­kin dummy pump­kin lantern. But anoth­er names also appeared, that are in some fam­i­lies became set­tled, that are grin­ning pump­kin, dumb, etc.). Hal­loween can be called dif­fer­ent­ly, respon­dents state (for exam­ple Halo­gene, Helovei). In 2003–2004 dec­o­ra­tive pump­kin­s, and/or sim­ple pump­kins appeared at the research areas (on stairs, entrence doors, but in the exam­ined edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion­s, shop­s, exhi­bi­tion­s, too).
On 31st Oct. 2003 at a place of enter­tain­ment in Ógyal­la a Hal­loween party was organ­ised with mo­re or less suc­cess. He­re only the organ­is­ers were in cos­tumes (witch, nun, etc.), who offered sweets from a bas­ket to the guest­s.