On Friday, the working communities of the Hargita county government, individual mayor's offices, libraries, bakeries, and pharmacies also donned Székely national costumes.
The Székely National Costume Day is celebrated in several settlements in Székelyland, where entire working communities put on their national costume or a part of it on Friday. On the occasion, the folk costume generator application called FolkApp was presented in Csíkszereda.
The Székely Folk Costume Day is traditionally held one day before the meeting of the Thousand Székely Girl's Day in the region at the invitation of the Hargita National Székely Folk Association, thus tuning in to the holiday.
Individuals and communities dressed in national costumes share their photos on their social media pages. According to the recordings published on the folk dance group's Facebook page
on Friday, the working communities of the Hargita county municipality, individual mayor's offices, libraries, bakeries, and pharmacies also donned Székely national costumes.
On the occasion, the FolkApp folk costume generator application was presented in Csíksereda. For its development, the Csíkszéki Transylvanian Carpathian Association (CsEKE) won a grant of around 31,000 euros within the framework of the LEADER program. For this
the folk costumes found in the Csík region were searched for, photographed, then digitized and made available to the general public together with a professional description.
President Károly Szabó said at the press conference in Csikszereda: the application was submitted because of the Zergék folk dance ensemble of CsEKE, and it is the result of many years of cooperation. He said: I would like to extend it to other landscape units, even to the whole of Transylvania.
"Today we still know what the folk costume of Csíkmadaras or Gyimesfelsőlk is like, but in 20-30 years we won't know anymore, that's why this work is so important"
he said.
Csaba Borboly, the president of the Hargita county municipality, reminded: the county council supported the acquisition of the Székely national costume from the beginning, but there was an increasing demand for other support programs as well, and for craftsmen to prepare them. "Knowledge was needed, education was needed, and it started to develop nicely, now we have a lot of authentic masters who make national costumes," said the politician dressed in national costume.
He recalled: in the beginning, companies from southern Romania also applied for the tenders, which encouraged the tenderers to pay more attention to the authenticity and professional competence of the creators. Through the Hargita National Székely Népi Együttes and the András Foundation, there is already a kind of professional control in the field, which needs to be further strengthened, he said.
He touched on the FolkApp phone application, which connects those who want to purchase Székely folk costumes with the makers, and even helps them to find the folk costume of the region that is most suitable for them.
The application currently collects the traditional folk costumes of the regions of Alcsík, Felcsík, Gyimesek and Kászonok, but according to the council president, this would be extended to Udvarhelyszék and Gyergyószék in the future.
The Day of the Thousand Székely Girls is held in Csíkszereda on Saturday, when the folk dance ensembles of the region put on their folk costumes and present the folk songs and dances of their town on stage in the Csíksomlyó mountain saddle.
The organizer Hargita National Székely Népi Együttes and the Csíkszereda municipality are expecting thousands of participants dressed in national costumes for the event, which starts on Szabadság tér in Csíkszereda and continues in the church and saddle of Csíksomlyo. The purpose of the event is to declare national and cultural belonging, to strengthen the Székely, Hungarian identity.
MTI
Cover photo: FolkApp was presented on the Székely folk costume day - Photo: Attila Pinti / Krónikaonline.ro
