A vajdasági magyar betlehemes játékok gyűjtésének és visszatanításának szerepe a lokalitásteremtésben
The Role of Collecting and Reteaching Hungarian Nativity Playsfrom Vojvodina in The Production of Locality

Summary/Abstract: The aim of my study is to explore the identity-preserving role of nativity plays, one of the most widespread dramatic sung folk customs in the Hungarian-speaking regions, as practiced in Vojvodina. In the course of my research, I sought to identify the social and political contexts that enabled the collection, re-teaching, and staging of nativity plays to begin in Vojvodina in the 1990s, and to examine how these processes contributed to the creation and strengthening of locality. I also aimed to understand what role local actors – collectors and transmitters – assigned to the custom of nativity plays within the structure of locality. Furthermore, I investigated the guiding intentions and motivations that brought into being and popularized the event known as the Meeting of Nativity Play Groups, held in Mohol between 1993 and 2003, as well as the outcomes of the folklorism related to nativity plays. From the perspective of research history, my review of the scholarly literature sought to cover the entirety of Vojvodina; however, I would like to emphasize that the focus of my research was the nativity play tradition of my own municipality and its role in the creation of locality. Based on the data collected, I attempted to draw conclusions about the impact of nativity plays on the formation of locality. During my fieldwork, conducted between April and August 2023, I carried out semi-structured interviews with collectors of nativity plays, members of nativity play groups, and the organizer of the Mohol nativity play meeting. In addition, I collected data from issues of the Vojvodina daily newspaper Magyar Szó published between 1993 and 2003, which I reviewed through a digital archive. I focused primarily on reports, interviews, and announcements that mentioned publications containing nativity play customs, events presenting the custom, and conversations with ethnographic researchers.

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