While most people know the “busós” from the annual Busó festivities (Poklade) in Mohács, Southern Hungary, the figure of the “jankele” is an extremely interesting one as well. Personally, I’m more interested in them. First, because they are crazy, playful, creepy, loud and simply weird and second, because there are very few of them. In the distant past, traditionally children dressed as “jankeles” until they became old enough to dress as “busós” (normally around their teen ages or older), but these days, every boy wants to be a busó. The “jankele” though had a very important role during the multi-century-old tradition of the Busó festivities (“Busójárás”). They kept the crowd away from the busós, avoiding people grabbing them, removing their masks or simply made way for them. Jankeles are dressed in rags, wear costumes, hide their identities, and carry sacks filled with feathers, hoot, flour and small rags. Fortunately this tradition is coming back more and more vividly, and I’m forever grateful to my friends dressing up as jankeles to make it possible for me to shoot from such close distance.
Me in the circle of jankeles
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