It all began with a tongue-twister…
Relics related to the history of smoking in Ibafa
MúzeumCafé 15.
“In our time the joy of tobacco has immensely grown and conquered men with a certain mysterious pleasure. Those once having acquired its taste are unable to break away.”
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
When Hungarians come across the name Ibafa, the appellation of a small village among the Zselic Hills in Baranya County, a well-known rhyme comes to mind: “The Ibafa priest has a wooden pipe, therefore the Ibafa priest’s pipe is a priestly wooden pipe.” What is the origin of the legendary sentence, which was already included as a tongue-twister in school textbooks in the last century? Tradition has it that Nándor Hangai (Schreier), who was a priest in Ibafa from 1864 to 1905, very much enjoyed smoking a pipe and that could have inspired journalist István Roboz, to compose the ditty. However, this cannot be proved. What is sure is that in 1931 music was composed to the words for the operetta The Ipafa Wedding. As a result the Ibafa priest’s pipe entered the limelight. Yet increasing numbers of people wanted to see the noted pipe. That may have given the idea to the villagers to have a wooden pipe made. The local postmistress’s husband asked his uncle in Pest, Béla Gerber, to carve it. He even sent him the wood from Ibafa. Thus a unique, rather large pipe entirely carved from pear-wood, lid included, was made and in 1934 was ceremoniously handed to the parish priest probably on the first Sunday after Whitsun, the day of the parish feast. The famous wooden pipe was then followed by others. A rich collection showing the history of smoking can still be seen in Ibafa: the Pipe Museum there exhibits objects belonging to the Baranya County Museum Directorate which are related to smoking and its history.