![\"\"](\"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/busopar-1030x687.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe event of Bus\u00f3j\u00e1r\u00e1s lasts for 6 days in late February and is organised at the end of the carnival season, in Hungarian called Farsang. During the carnival, we bid farewell to winter and the Bus\u00f3s scare away the cold weather, while we also celebrate the spring coming, fertility and rebirth. During the event, you can choose from several programmes such as creative workshops, masquerading, folk dance and music performances, or bonfires, while you can also explore traditional Hungarian cuisines such as spicy sausages, freshly made mini doughnuts, l\u00e1ngos or chimney cake.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bus\u00f3s are traditionally men wearing scary costumes, unique wooden masks and woolly cloaks made of sheepskin. They like to chase around and circulate among the crowd while pulling pranks and making a big noise as a symbol of scaring winter away. Although most Bus\u00f3s are men, women also participate and they dress up as female Bus\u00f3s, or they wear costumes reminiscent of female Ottoman Turks.<\/p>\n
But why the Ottomans exactly? A legend holds that around the 16th century, the local \u0160okci people (a South Slavic ethnic group from Croatia) fled from Moh\u00e1cs to the nearby swamps and woods to avoid the Ottoman troops. One night an old man appeared and came up with the idea of creating scary, fearsome masks and making rattling and clattering objects to scare away the Ottomans. At night, the \u0160okci crossed the river Danube with their boats and chased the Ottomans away. Even though the story has no real historical foundations, the legend of Bus\u00f3s is still very popular among the townspeople.<\/p>\n
Moh\u00e1cs is a significant place in Hungarian history because two major battles were fought here. One of them was in 1526 which marks the beginning invasion of Hungary by the Ottomans. The other significant battle took place in 1687, which was the prelude to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/buso01-1030x687.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In ancient times, Bus\u00f3s walked from house to house to express their good wishes, practice magic and, in exchange, receive drinks and food gifts. Today, most of the folk customs origin has lost but have gained with numerous other attractions. It is a real End-of-Winter festival with such events as the crossing of the Danube in large ferry boats or the sinking of Old Man Winter\u2019s coffin in the river.<\/p>\n
One of the main events of the carnival takes place during the penultimate night of the festival when a straw man is carried into the centre of Moh\u00e1cs and burned in a bonfire, while the townspeople hold hands and dance around the fire. The event also includes a children\u2019s costume contest where children Bus\u00f3s can also have fun and wear carved masks. The festival usually draws about 800 Bus\u00f3s and 200 revellers in other types of costumes during the event.<\/p>\n
As you can see, Bus\u00f3j\u00e1r\u00e1s is indeed one of the most famous spring carnivals in southern Hungary. We encourage you to visit Moh\u00e1cs and celebrate the spring coming together with the Bus\u00f3s, say goodbye to the cold season and welcome the new spring!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/busopar02-687x1030.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Links and sources:\u00a0HungaryToday<\/a>;\u00a0WeLoveBudapest<\/a>;\u00a0Expat-press.com<\/a>;\u00a0UNESCO<\/a>;\u00a0atlasobscura.com<\/a>;\u00a0Moh\u00e1csi Bus\u00f3j\u00e1r\u00e1s Official<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The annual ritual of Bus\u00f3j\u00e1r\u00e1s dates back hundreds of years, celebrating the end of the winter and the beginning of spring. The UNESCO-recognised event lasts approximately one week in the small town of Moh\u00e1cs, located in southern Hungary, near the city of P\u00e9cs. This year the carnival will take place between 16-21 February. Learn more about Bus\u00f3j\u00e1r\u00e1s, one of the most famous Hungaricums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[23],"class_list":["post-10517","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-actual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/10517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/10517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16530,"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/10517\/revisions\/16530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10517"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diasporascholarship.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=10517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}