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The decision was made by UNESCO's inter-governmental committee in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, wíhich selected 77 out of 111 applications to extend the list to 167.
The procession of "busos" wearing traditional wooden masks and sheepskin costumes attracts about 30 thousand tourists to Mohacs, a town with about 20,000 residents, each year.
Buso procession is a folk custom of the local Croatian minority. Its origins reach back to the pagan fertility cult.
The event recalls a legend of the ethnic group, according to which their ancestors, seeking refuge from the Turkish occupiers on the island of Mohacs on the opposite side of the Danube, crossed the river in boats at night, disguised in horrifying masks, and forced the superstitious soldiers of the enemy into panicked escape. In an older, less popular story, the busos are scaring away not the Turks but winter itself.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
