Bodok folk music, folk songs and the local folklore group

One of the characteristic parts of folk culture is folk music, from which folk songs stand out. Many folk songs from Alsóbodok can be linked to some event, e.g. seasonal folk customs (Christmas, Carnival, Palm Sunday, May Day, All Saints' Night, etc. songs) or to the turning points of human life (certain moments of a wedding, funeral laments, etc.). In addition, of course, there were many other occasions for individual or collective singing, e.g. children's songs and lullabies, songs of children's games, the singing world of girls' round dances, military songs, merry-making songs, ballads, songs related to work (e.g. harvest songs), etc. Many folk songs have been collected here by our renowned researchers, perhaps the most by Tibor Ág. The local folk song treasure is brought to the stage by the Alsóbodok folklore group, and they achieve success not only here at home, but also abroad. They were formed in 1972, one of their founders was a teacher Júlia Balabán, later their leader was Ilona Holec, a master of folk art who also performs as a solo singer (ballads, folk songs of festive customs, church songs, etc.). They have won several national awards, their own independent record was released (on cassette and CD), but they appear on several joint records and CDs. Instrumental music has not been preserved, zither music was cultivated for the longest time, but it is no longer practiced. The characteristic instrument of the carnival was the bagpipe, the local Zoboralja Museum preserves a goat-shaped bagpipe head from the legacy of one of the last shepherds, Mihály Karasz, elder. We have no historical data on string music.