Old trades of Kukkónia

May 30, 2019

Hunt for Wild Boar in the Heart of Kukkónia

With the winter the hunting season opened. This was the best time for hunting wild boar, the leaves having fallen and the water frozen on the eternally wet marshes. By Epiphany snow has fallen, thus to the hunters’ joy, conditions were the best for wild boar hunts in Bős. The noise of the gathering was interrupted by the attention-demanding voice of the horn and in addition to the guns - in accordance with regulations - hunters armed with visibility elements stood quietly in rows. Even the excitable hunting dogs go quiet as if they too were interested in the sermon on the mount and they turn...

Nov 27, 2018

From the Golden Garden to Kukkónia

“There is no better life than ours, Us water-miller lads…” The millers of Szap sang this song a good hundred years ago. In those days milling was a highly respected trade. The waters of the Golden Garden were enriched, in addition to the fish, by various water mills. The Danube’s waters were put to use by humans, today, however, there are hardly any signs left of this once thriving industry. There were several kinds of mills in Csallóköz. The mills of dry land were driven by animals or humans, while the waters of the island drove the water mills. It is interesting that settlements such as...

Old trades of Kukkónia

Nov 27, 2018

The Danube’s Gold

On long winter nights the locals told stories of marvellous beings, beautiful fairies, who shed gold dust from their golden blonde hair into the Danube. With a little skill the glittering flakes of gold could be gathered by anyone. Although the fairies left Csallóköz, they left the gold here for us. I talked with geologist Lajos Tuba, the head of the Regional Development Agency of Somorja, about the Danube’s gold and the secrets of panning for gold. Folk tradition believes that the Danube’s gold comes from the fairies. In reality, how did the precious metal get into the river? In the same way...