Hungary’s best-known folk festival is a wild farewell to winter — the Busójárás of Mohács, where masked busós cross the Danube in rowing boats and burn winter in a coffin.
Photo: User:Qji, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Busójárás was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. It began among the Šokci, a Croatian community in Mohács on the Danube, and has become a symbol of the whole town, drawing guest busó groups from neighbouring countries.
It is a carnival custom, so its dates follow Easter: the six days end on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.
At the end of carnival, the Danube town of Mohács is overrun by busós — men in carved wooden masks and shaggy sheepskins who arrive by rowing boat, parade through the streets with noise and fire, and burn a coffin that stands for winter.
February 4 – 9, 2027Calculated