Meet Aunt Ilonka: The 80-Year-Old Hungarian Bell Ringer Preserving Tradition

2023-12-24 09:58:22

Published24. December 2023, 10:58

Hungary: At 80, she continues to ring the bells

“As long as my hands and feet can handle it, there will be no automatic mechanism,” says the grandmother.

During Christian holidays, Jozsefne Szedlak, also called Aunt Ilonka, sits on a stool and simultaneously uses her hands and right foot to ring the bells of her Hungarian villages.

AFP

Following in the footsteps of family traditions for five generations, Jozsefne Szedlak, also called Aunt Ilonka, leaves her home twice a day to go to the church in her Hungarian village and ring the bells.

She is one of the very few bell ringers in Hungary and works to ring those of the Catholic church in Tereny, a small village of around 350 inhabitants, some 60 kilometers north of Budapest.

The heaviest weighs 450 kilos

The heaviest bell weighs around 450 kilograms. “As long as my hands and feet can handle it, there will be no automatic mechanism,” says the 80-year-old grandmother.

“People say, and it’s true, that bells die when they’re automated, so a bell that works by pressing a button doesn’t ring the same way,” she says.

An increasingly rare profession

Bell ringers across Europe are becoming fewer and fewer with the gradual installation of motorized systems since the 20th century, explains Ferenc Bajko, a campanologist who studies the history of church bells.

A popular ringer

For the town of Tereny, Aunt Ilonka is a “blessing”, says mayor Andrasne Brozso. Television crews and tourists regularly flock to the village to meet her. Even Hungarian President Katalin Novak visited him last June.

Aunt Ilonka usually uses only one hand to ring a bell at noon or evening, and says a silent prayer that allows her to count the time. But on important Christian holidays, like Christmas, she has to manually ring the three bells of the medieval church. She sits on a stool and simultaneously uses her hands and right foot to make them ring.