By TURÓCZINÉ VARGA ILDIKO
HUNGARIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
Hungary is a small country in Central Europe. It is located in the Carpathian Basin with a population of less than 10 million, but another 2,5 million Hungarians reside within the seven countries surrounding its borders, and another 2 million Hungarians live in other parts of the world. These people speak Hungarian – known as Magyar.
Hungary has a rich and diverse heritage of music, dance, costume, arts and crafts, gastronomy, and even the conventions of naming; Hungarians place the family name before the given name, as is the case with most peoples of eastern and south-eastern Asia.
At the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, the semi-normandic Magyar people migrated from the Eurasian Steppe to Central Europe. Hungarian history and culture was influenced by the invasions of the Mongols in the 13th century and that of the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century, the Habsburg rulers from 16th to 1918. Hungary was dominated by Nazi Germany during WWII and the Soviet Union from 1945 until 1989. Hungarian Jews and various groups of Roma people also had a great influence on Hungary’s culture, gastronomy, music, dance, culture, arts and crafts.
FOLK ARTS AND CRAFTS
FOLK EMBROIDERY
The techniques and embroidery styles vary according to theri base material and yarn type. In the 18th century, free-hand floral designs of various stitch types began replacing the older geometric motifs. This led to the development of several distinctive regional and local styles of embroidery; th ebest-known of these come from Kalocsa, Kalotaszeg and Mezőkövesd.
FOLK JEWELLERY
Jewelry has long been an essential element in the traditional dress of Hungarian girls and women.
Read a full presentation of Traditional Hungarian Arts and Crafts at
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