Csallóköz nativity scene

On the custom of the nativity scene ; (sung before the nativity play) ; ; Christmas, the commemoration of the birth of Jesus, was the most joyful holiday of the year. The real atmosphere of the popular celebration of Christmas was given by customs, festive games and other folk traditions. One such game, still alive in some places today and often revived here in Csallóköz, was the nativity scene. Around Christmas, the nativity scenes appeared at the houses – thereby also signaling the approach of the holiday – and they acted out the story of the birth of Jesus. Initially, these plays were presented in the church. Then, the religious story originally performed in Latin, once it reached the people, transformed into an almost completely secular folk play, only showing a religious flavor in its form. In appearance, it still retained its religious character, but in content it became a performance interspersed with highly secular, laughable scenes. This nativity scene collected in Csallóköz is now being presented by the members of the male choir. ; ; From the history of nativity scenes ; ; Tibor Ág, Zsuzsanna Kovács and László Huszár collected it from Lipót Ógellén and Uncle Poldi in the autumn of 1980. Uncle Poldi also gifted a nativity scene made in 1932 to the Gelle singing group. ; ; The nativity scene compiled from this collection – supplemented with texts from Tibor Ág’s Nagyszarvai, Nagylúcsei, Nagyudvarnok and Vámosfalusi collections – was learned by the members of the Gelle male choir and performed it in front of the Gelle audience on a retirement day in November 1986, to the great astonishment of the village leadership at the time (due to its religious nature), but to the great satisfaction of the audience. ; The Gelle male choir then presented it in several places, once in the church of Egyházgelle. They were particularly successful at the nativity scene meetings: on December 21, 1991 in Kecskemét, later in Budapest twice, and also in Oroszlány twice. ; ; Among the members of the Gelle male choir, the following performed in the nativity scene: ; ; 1st Angel: Dezső Álló ; 2nd Angel: Jenő Csánó ; Boy: Gyula Álló, later Attila Cseh ; Shepherd: Pál Zöld ; Old Man: Ferenc Bognár ; ; Member of the Béke-Sárosfai Cimbora male folk choir In the fall of 2017, they learned the play performed by the Gelle people and performed it for the first time in front of the audience of an Advent concert in Béke. In the same year, it was also presented in Tejfalu on Felsőjányok and Csütörtök. ; Among the members of the Cimbora folk choir, the following performed in the nativity scene: ; 1st Angel: János Süli ; 2. Angel: József Masicza, later Kálmán Kosár; Boy: Zoltán Magyarics; Shepherd: Imre Csölle; Elder: Pál Horváth; ; In 2018, they performed in Bős, Illésháza, Sárosfá, Gencsapati at an international nativity scene meeting, and in Béké and Gelle.