Szerelmi „kilelés” és „késztetés” a moldvai magyarok hagyományos világában
Moldavian Hungarian’s “Love Foretelling” and Its Distortions

Summary/Abstract: I use the term “love foretelling”– which in a broader sense could more commonly be described as “love divination”– to define the set of habits and beliefs that can be observed in traditional peasant life before marriage, at the time of choosing one’s partner. The purpose of this practice for young people is to “foretell” each other, but especially for themselves how, or who their lover and then their spouse would be. We can divide these inquiries and practices, which serve to foretell their future loves, into two groups. One is when they passively seek information about the characteristics of the person ordered and expected to be one’s partner by various, mainly irrational, means; the other, when they primarily want to influence their potential future spouse’s emotions with magical acts. By the very nature of things, unfulfilled love interest often shifts to the opposite extreme, and instead of intensifying the affection it takes the form of vengeance, distorted into curses or bewitchment.

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