Mollináry May feast of IR 38

After the location of the supplement battalion the 38th Infantry Regiment was a regiment of Kecskemét. The crew came from Central Hungary, Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskún county. One of the Kappenabzeichen, the Mollináry-May feast cap badge, caused me a lot of trouble for a long time. There is no trace of this event in the regimental history volume. It must have been significant, as a special cap badge was prepared and sold for the occasion. Any badge was hardly produced by the maker in 10-20 copies, rather in the thousands. So the event must have been large-scale, too.

Then, after a while, a poster image of the event appeared on the Hungarian Great War blog (Nagy Háború Blog). The existence of the poster confirmed that it was a larger event. Surprising is that it was not held in Kecskemét, but in Budapest. Of course, the audience in Budapest is much larger, but the soldiers of 38 were not from Budapest… The poster and the badge don’t fit together either. The badge depicts a girl dressed in folk costumes dancing with a 38-er soldier. It’s actually the kind of village atmosphere I thought was typical. The poster, on the other hand, depicts the private with flirtatiously flattering ladies of Pest… I’m sure none of the ladies are his sweetheart. Anyway, the poster is good and the badge is also good! The poster with the pipe and the black cloth collar lapel of the soldier is a completely authentic depiction. The badge was created at Márkus Berger’s workshop in Budapest. And the event took place on Pentecost in 1917, as can be seen on the poster and badge. The event was organized by the regiment’s aid fund. The income was given to the fund.