(5 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mohács, Hungary – 4 March 2025
1. Various of men dressed up as Busho
2. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Istvan Bubreg, member of the local Sokac minority:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
"When I put on that mask, a whole different world opens for me. I’ve lived my entire life, obviously, with the tradition of being able to make fun of someone, touch someone with the mace in a way that they do not know who it was all year long."
3. Close of participant picking up mask
4. Close of participant walking
5. Various of men dressed up as Busho
6. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Damir Bubreg, son of Istvan Bubreg:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
"One of the essentials or meanings of the Busho festival is to drive away the winter and celebrate the arrival of the spring together. It looks like we succeeded this year; we have very beautiful weather, Bushos are sweating a lot now.”
7. Various of Bushos
8. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Csanád Fülöp, member of the local Sokac minority:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
"When we dress up as a Busho, we change completely. This is when we leave the ordinary life and we are among our friends. And from this moment on, it’s a common feeling; it needs to be felt, maybe it can’t even be explained. This whole thing is just fantastic.”
++EVENING SHOTS++
9. Wide of man carrying coffin to the bonfire
10. Bushos dancing with torches around the bonfire
11. Wide of burning bonfire and coffin
STORYLINE:
The sun is shining, and the streets are full of the clanging of bells and noises of rattles.
Grown men are dressed in sheepskins and terrifying wooden masks.
Known as Bushos, they are scaring winter away.
Istvan Bubreg is preparing to take on the role of a Busho, and he revels in the character.
"When I put on that mask, a whole different world opens for me. I’ve lived my entire life, obviously, with the tradition of being able to make fun of someone, touch someone with the mace in a way that they do not know who it was all year long," he says.
This end-of-winter carnival tradition dates back to the 16th century, to Hungary’s Ottoman occupation, when the men of Mohacs dressed up in sheep fur and wooden masks in a bid to frighten off their Turkish invaders.
Bubreg’s son, Damir, is carrying on the family tradition.
Most of the men behind the scary masks belong to the city’s Sokac (Croatian) minority.
Damir says the warm spring weather makes wearing the heavy woolen costumes very uncomfortable.
"One of the essentials or meanings of the Busho festival is to drive away the winter and celebrate the arrival of the spring together. It looks like we succeeded this year; we have very beautiful weather. Bushos are sweating a lot now.”
The Busho festival lasts six days.
It starts on a Thursday, followed by a smaller carnival on Friday, with the biggest celebration on the seventh Sunday before Easter.
The celebration ends on the following Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras), which is more for the locals than the tourists, when masked men visit schools and pensioners’ homes.
The festival is multifaceted, including displays of how to make the ornate masks, plus there’s a march through the city with horse-drawn carts or motorized fantasy vehicles.
A coffin, which symbolizes winter, is also burned, followed by feasting.
The tradition originated with the Sokac minority in Mohacs, remembering a time when the Turks occupied the area in the 16th century. The locals donned outlandish costumes in the hope of scaring away the invaders.
AP video shot by Nikolett Csanyi
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