Description
Inspired by secret police informer reports about tensions and conflicts during the pilgrimage to Máriapócs in Hungary on 18th August 1969, one year after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, this chapter addresses the way that the geopolitical context shaped the auditary experience of pilgrims. Máriapócs is a Greek Catholic pilgrimage site that has attracted pilgrims from across East Central Europe since the 17th century when its miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary was first reported to have wept. As the largest Greek Catholic pilgrimage in the Carpathian basin, Máriapócs has always atttracted pilgrims from the diverse ethnic (Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Roma) and confessional (Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Orthodox) backgrounds. The pilgrimage in August 1969, however, was special because at the height of the Cold War following the bloody Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia one year earlier, it became a site of acoustic combat and physical violence between the various groups of pilgrims who gathered there to venerate Mary. Based on the secret police reports from the period, contemporary oral historical interviews and participation in the pilgrimage in 2024 and 2025, I explore the role that acoustics play in the establishment of moral and ideological order at Máriapócs. I approach the question of dissonance at the pilgrimage site through an exploration of changing hierarchies of liturgical language, choral practice and congregational singing that are central to worship and prayer within the Greek Catholic tradition and that have undergone transformation following Vatican II and the recognition of Hungarian as a liturgical language in 1965. This case study reveals how dissonant soundscapes reflect and shape communal experience and ethical conduct of pilgrims at this multi-ethnic site.| Period | 16 Oct 2025 → 18 Oct 2025 |
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| Held at | European Association of Social Anthropologists |