Felekezetileg vegyes házasságok, rítus- és vallásváltozások egy erdélyi faluban
Interfaith Marriages and Changes of Rite in a Transylvanian Village Community

Summary/Abstract: This study examines local practices and tendencies of interfaith marriages and changes of rite in a village community of the Eastern Carpathians, settled in the 18th century by people of various ethnic and denominational backgrounds. While Hungarian-speaking partners moving in as a result of interfaith marriages assisted the language shift in the community, local practices expected everyone to follow the Greek Catholic rite of the majority. This situation has significantly changed from the 1940s on, when Roman Catholic and (after the banning of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania) Orthodox pastoration started in the village, so new “rules” of denominational coexistence and interfaith marriages needed to emerge. In case of interfaith marriages today, women always convert to their husband’s denomination, but many mixed families are somehow connected to both churches, as religious affiliation and local practices of conversion are quite flexible.

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