Grooming has become an intellectual cultural heritage.
The living tradition of Hungarian groomsmanship, pastoral skills and traditions in the Bakony and Balaton regions, the tradition of growing and processing flat cabbage in Hadház, and the tradition of tambourine music have been added to the national list of intellectual cultural heritage, the Open-Air Museum of Ethnography in Szentendre told MTI.
As they write, the living tradition of groom-shaming is a characteristic element of Hungarian culture, a tradition that has existed continuously from the 18th century to the present day and can be renewed in every historical era.
In folk culture, the wedding and wedding officiant leads the ceremonies with poetic rhymes, enhances the solemnity of the rite of passage with greetings, directs the order of the wedding meals and entertains the wedding party with funny poems, games, songs and dance routines.
To this day, a defining part of the cultural heritage of the Bakony and Balaton region is grazing livestock and the related knowledge of shepherds. This includes the traditional ecological knowledge required for outdoor grazing, folk knowledge of nature, the use of clothing, and knowledge of the preparation of shepherd's tools.
Furthermore, it covers the knowledge of gastronomy, old outlaw and shepherd stories and tales, pasture selection, animal healing and animal care.
The tradition of growing and processing flat cabbage in Hadház includes the traditions of intensive garden farming linked to the heritage element Hajdúhadház and its surroundings. Hadháza cabbage is a flat-headed, thin-leaved landscape variety whose gastronomic significance is given by the fine structure of its head structure.
Cabbage dishes and sauerkraut using the traditional method are produced not only for sale, but also for regular consumption at Hadház. Fresh and pickled, it is the basis of many foods (for example, stuffed cabbage). The cultivation of cabbage has long been a source of livelihood and supplemental income for the people living in the settlement, the statement highlights.
They write about the tradition of tambura music:
the tambourine is a long-necked, small-bodied plucked instrument belonging to the lute family, a version of Persian-Arabic origin entered the culture of our region, probably through South Slavic mediation, in the 16th-17th centuries. century.
The instrument representing the bourdon sound meets the Hungarian polyphonic, "gypsy band" harmonized way of playing and then, mainly as a result of the development work of instrument makers of Hungarian origin, the instruments of the tambura family are formed, from the prim tambourine to the tambourine bass.
Their birth represents a mutually enriching meeting of cultures. The "instruments that have become Hungarian" are also considered by the Serbian and Croatian communities as their own. As a result of the dance hall movement, the instrument family became popular again.
The newly added heritage elements in 2024 to the national list of intangible cultural heritage, which so far contains 52 elements, were announced in the Skanzen in Szentendre on October 17, the International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The professional coordination of the state tasks of the UNESCO International Convention on the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage is carried out by the Directorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Open Air Ethnographic Museum in Szentendre.
Pursuant to the Convention on the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage, it identifies and registers heritage elements located on the territory of the state.
The complete list of intellectual cultural heritages can be viewed at szkémtikulturalisorokseg.hu.
Featured image: Sándor Balázs, president of the Vőfélyszövetség. Photo source: vofelyszovetseg.hu
