Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1998 (15. évfolyam, 51-54. szám)
1998 / 51-52. szám
is Professor Ira Glazier, who has enlisted a network of international scholars in this major undertaking, including researchers from Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. Professor Glazier has raised the possibility of Hungarian involvement also. Until this past year I sincerely doubted -on the basis of past experience -that anyone in Hungary would be able to cover the cost and commitment required for the compilation of this ambitious database. Luckily the American Studies Department of the Eötvös Lóránt University, under the direction of Tibor Frank, has adopted the project. Professor Frank, who is himself devoted to immigration research, saw the great potential of this project. The project provides the American Studies department with enlarged microfilm copies of the passenger lists free of charge. Furthermore, the completed data base will be at the disposal of Hungarian researchers. The Immigration History Research Institute in Philadelphia requires only that one copy of the Hungarian data base be included in their overall collection. We have attempted to obtain financial support from banks, so far without success. Only the Soros Foundation has responded positively to our proposal. It has provided us with a one million forint support grant for an ongoing seminar on this issue. Later the Hungarian Ministry of Culture also provided some support. We have begun our work with the passenger lists originating in the port city of Fiume (present-day Rijeka). Hungarians constituted a larger portion of the passengers from this port. Although a larger total number of passengers boarded ship at Bremen and Hamburg, the nationality backgrounds of the passengers at these other ports were much more diverse. Since the future of this program is somewhat tentative, we felt that we would give the Hungarian speaking passengers priority in the first wave of additions to the data base. We have compiled a "sample" of the migration pattern from Hungary, in order to obtain an overall understanding of the process of migration and its social and demographic characteristics. The objective has been to pinpoint the linkages in the chain of migration relative to family and friendship contacts as well as on the basis of the geographic origin and other characteristics of the human cargo carried by these ships. In other respects, such as family history research, the data base can be of even greater significance. On Ellis Island, the public or at least those who visit it, the Immigration Museum provides access to the data base. In a user friendly format anyone can call up the data related to their immigrant ancestors and relatives. I visited the Museum last June just when the exhibit on Italian immigration was opened, and can personally testify that there is a great deal of public interest in this data. Hungarian-Americans can now also begin to access the information on the data related to their ancestors. Although the sources added are still only in the tens of thousands, hopefully the work of expanding and adding to the data will continue. Of course the latter depends on continued financial and institutional support. However, the future of this project determines the extent to which we will become a part of the conscious memory of American society at the Ellis Island museum. Julianna Puskás RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES (Continued) AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOODS, HUNGARIAN SETTLEMENTS Toledo's Christmas Play On December 25, 1997, Toledo's daily newspaper, The Blade, reported that the Christmas play in the HungarianAmerican community of “Birmingham” was not being performed for the second Christmas in a row. The Blade article claimed that the “lack of Hungarian-speaking men and the further decline of Hungarian culture in the Birmingham neighborhood appear to be the reason for the cancellation of a centuryold Christmas tradition." The Christmas Mummers play came to this East Toledo, Ohio, neighborhood before the turn of the present century. It came with Hungarian immigrants from Hungary's north eastern counties of Abauj, Szatmar, and Heves. What is special about this play is that it has been re-enacted in at least two of the neighborhood churches (St. Stephen's Roman Catholic and St. Michael’s Greek Catholic) for the past one hundred years. This is a morality play linked to the gospel story of the Christ Child and the Holy family and their tribulations in Bethlehem. However, the cast of characters does not include the Holy family. The presence of the latter is acknowledged with a portable church-like structure (manger), carried by the shepherds and/or angels! The usual cast has four to six angels and a similar number of shepherds who are jointly responsible for carrying the church-like-manger. Most of the dialogue is carried on between these shepherds and angels and the main character called an öreg ("old one”) but pronounced erdög or ördög which means devil(ish) or fiend(ish). The öreg represents the shadow side of human nature with selfishness, laziness and crankiness being his outstanding features. He keeps up a constant running-commentary, filled with crude allusions and doublemeanings, which challenges the role of the Church and the "dainty" representatives of the Christmas story. He is the foil who defines the roles of the angels and shepherds as defenders of the truth, in both their retorts to the öreg and the Christmas songs which they sing! The lively banter, the costumes and the songs make for fine community entertainment and involvement. Ray Pentzel has written about this play, one PBS documentary has been produced with the play as its focus, and another documentary film has been devoted totally to the role of the play in the community. The play's significance is enhanced by two additional considerations. While the performance of similar folk plays were outlawed in its home of origin during the Communist Rákosi regime, it continued to be performed in Birmingham down to our time. Furthermore, the play was performed by second and third generation American-Hungarian young men, many of whom no longer understood the words they were required to recite. Thus, to the present its elements were preserved in the form in which it originally arrived to Toledo in the 1890’s. The preservation of this gem of folk culture should be a joint undertaking of both the community and the academic institutions in the greater Toledo area. But this should also be of concern to other Hungarian-American communities in the U.S.A. and Canada as well as to Hungarian research institutions in Budapest, Debrecen or Szeged. Part of our collective memory, our values, and cultural contributions are at stake! 10 NO. 51-52, SPRING-SUMMER, 1998, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
