Let's sew a button on this: Michel van Langeveld, whom everyone now knows only as Mihály Holland, moved to Szék in Transylvania from the Netherlands 19 years ago, and since then he has been actively working to preserve tradition.
Szék has now become the most famous village of Mezőség, as it has preserved many of its former traditions to this day. You can also see people dressed in traditional costumes on the street, and the village and its surroundings have many attractions for those interested. Michel van Langeveld, whom everyone now knows only as Mihály Holland, moved to the farming village from the Netherlands 19 years ago, and since then he has been actively involved in the preservation of tradition: he revived the Csipkeszeg dance hall, created a museum and photo exhibition, and at the same time renovated several old, traditional Szék houses.
He received me in Mihály Holland's neat house, which he renovated and remodeled with a lot of work, and where the new Csipkeszeg dance hall operates. The former barn has everything you need for a good dance hall, there is a "tavern", a good floor for dancing, and many, many pairs of old chair boots are hanging on the beams, which are only a part of Mihály Holland's boot collection.
Michel van Langeveld told us that in 1980 he started going to an amateur dance group in the Netherlands, and there he also learned Hungarian folk dance, which he found very difficult at first, but later fell in love with. He visited Hungarian dance halls for years, and he first came to Transylvania after the regime change, visiting many villages, and following Péter Korniss, he made pictures and videos. Finally, in 2004, he decided to buy and renovate an old, crumbling Szék house, which once housed the dance hall in Csipkeszeg, and where he organized his collection.
His collection now includes more than 560 pairs of traditional Szekler boots, but he also has a collection of straw hats, and he also obsessively collects old musical instruments, coffee grinders, plates, and furniture. Mihály Holland also told how he got hold of the many old objects.
"In the past, whenever I visited the Netherlands, I brought Szék Dutch coffee home and exchanged boots, straw hats, furniture, or any antiques with them. Everyone knew that they had to come to me if they had something old, and many times when someone moved out of the village and the house had to be vacated for the new owner, a lot of the old furniture was given to me or I bought it."
he said proudly.
After the barn, we also looked at the collection, which he arranged in the house where the old Csipkeszeg dance hall was. When he bought the building, it was already crumbling, but Mihály Holland renovated it beautifully, and extended the attic a little so that he could create his attic museum there in 2017. Thus, on the lower level of the old house, a Szék clean room was located, where you can see the Szék national costume and old furniture, and you can walk around the attic, looking at Michel van Langeveld's pictures, which he took in various dance halls and parties over the past 30 years, and also his wonderful collection of musical instruments, which he carefully collected over the years.
According to Michel van Langeveld, it is worth visiting Szék, you can even spend 2-3 days in the Mezőg village, as there is more and more everything there: there is an old salt mine, an 800-year-old, wonderfully renovated Reformed church, there is the reed reserve, and the " Széki Medve-tó" is also under construction, where you can even swim in warm weather.
And Michel van Langeveld "didn't regret at all" that he moved to Szék, as he met his wife, Erzsike, there, and they built a life for themselves that they had always wanted, he said.
Featured Image: Screenshot/YouTube
