Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)

1984-07-21 / 14-15. szám

where many live in one area and more difficult where only one or two are involved. Getting that type of teaching is, however, the right of every child. Hungarian is one of the languages. A few years ago the Committee sent some of its members to Hungary, they called on the World Federation of Hungarians and held discussion with János Gosztonyi, the Secretary General. I am told that things move smoothly between the Federation, the Hungarian Ministry of Education, and our own (Training) Committee.”

“How do you feel about cooperation?”

“It is part of the nature of things that most of the contacts are on the university level. There, as far as I can see, things run smoothly. I am told that interest among families with a Hungarian background in Hungarian courses for the children has grown in recent years. I take it that the Hungarian Native Language Conference, also has a finger in the pie there. The patronage of the Conference has, for years now, made it possible for Hungarian home language teachers working in Sweden to attend further training summer courses at Debrecen, acquiring new skills, familiarising themselves with new methods. We are fully behind that and indeed are trying to take things further. This autumn a group of university students of Hungarian will go to Hungary. The novelty of the matter is that this is not further training but part of a new programme of undergraduate studies for Hungarian home language teachers. It goes without saying that the World Federation of Hungarians and the Native Language Conference have a key role in all this. A team of Hungarian immigrants who have already been naturalised in Sweden are handling the Swedish aspect of things.”

“Mr Ambassador, what is your opinion of Hungaro—Swedish relations. Are they in keeping with the spirit of détente?”

“I am not just being polite when I say they are truly very good. Quality does not just depend on the quantity of Swedish events in Hungary, or vice versa. One can feel the quality of contacts at negotiations and meetings. Nothing spectacular has occurred in recent years in the commercial field, however, chiefly for financial reasons. It seems there is now hope for a new boom in economic relations. But this is up to the businessmen. What the state authorities or the Embassy can do is to promote the necessary contacts.

Things are much the same when it comes to culture. In recent years some manifestations proved truly successful which were not based on a state organized exchange but were organized by this or that institution off its own bat. The appearance at the Budapest Spring Festival of the Swedish Royal Theatre or the performance by the Cullberg Ballet are examples.

If you ask me if there is need for more spontaneous actions of this sort I would say yes. I think that there are good intentions on both sides to make the contacts even closer and more extensive. In the autumn there will be a visit by the Swedish Prime Minister to HunJ gary. I am sure that may help to bring two countries that are not all that far from each other geographically closer together in the cultural field.”

“Mr Ambassador, thank you for the interview.”

JÁNOS PÉTER SÖS

A stroll through the new National Theatre

Of course, only in the imagination, for the designs of the new theatre are still on the drawing boards. The building is due to be completed in 1939.

The architect, Miklós Hofer, received me with a team of young colleagues on the job at the Enterprise for Planning Public Buildings. The new theatre is already a living reality in his imagination.

“7 should like to ask you to accompany me on a short imaginary stroll in the new National Theatre!”

“We are at a clearing in the City Park, overlooking Dózsa György út” — said Miklós Hofer, — on the fringe of the century old park.

“An illuminated fountain meets the theatregoer on arrival. There is a colourful ornamental gallery above the main entrance. The entrance hall is reminiscent of that of the old National Theatre. Proceeding further by way of the 60 meters wide stairway, we get into the side hall. This is where one gets one’s first surprise, finding oneself in a huge winter garden. These two halls, each measuring 40 metres by 20 metres, lend a special character of the new National Theatre. The foyers seem to bring in nature, through their arched glass walls.”

“What is in these inner gardens?”

“A garden of statues, a fountain, a café and a restaurant in one, and an amphitheatre seating 120 people, suitable for concerts and intimate theatre performances in the other.”

“How do we get into the auditorium?"

“To the first ten rows from the side foyer. Those seated in the upper raws walk up another halfflight to reach the upper foyer. This is a 400 m2 hall, with a balcony and the glass wall of the main front on the outer, and the entrance to the auditorium on the inner side. This large foyer is extended by two smaller ones leading to the side boxes.”

“What about the auditorium?”

“Perhaps I should say that the auditorium seating 1,100 will be traditional but in a modern way. It is close to the horse-shoe shape of the old theatres, and recalls the intimacy of the old National Theatre. It will be dominated by brown, richly ornamented wood panelling, and textiles in warm colours. Yet the functional achievements of 20th century architecture will also be utilized: good vision and sound acoustics, and good lighting.”

“And the stage?”

“It will follow the classic European pattern. The main stage complete with a 30 meters high stageloft is joined by two side stages, and a studio stage with a seating capacity for 200 people. The size of the main stage can be changed in any direction, to suit requirements. The actors’ lounge and the dressing rooms are on the level of the stage, each complete with a bathroom, and a small balcony opening onto the City Park. Great personalities of the Hungarian theatrical history will be commemorated in the building, and various works of art will be given an important role.”

“How would you summarize the intentions of the design?”

“The building will recall 19th century Hungarian classicism, and also Art Nouveau in some of its aspects. The aim of architecture is to express the local and national culture. It has to reflect the present in a way that also echos traditions.”

Leaving the building, stepping out into the commotion of the throbbing city, I noticed the slowly revolving model of the new building in the show window of the Enterprise for Planning Public Buildings. The Hungarian tricolore is above it, and an inscription: “Let us build the National Theatre.”

ÁDÁM BALÄZS

FROM THE ŐRSÉG TO AMERICA

A national competition of collecting ethnographic and dialect date which is still going was originally launched and organized by the Museum of Ethnography in 1952 in order to broaden the mass-support of museums in the search for, and conservation of ethnographic objects and documents in their district.

The competitors have come from the most diverse sections of society; retired peasants, country teachers, students, ministers of religion, pupils of elementary and secondary schools, and adult education animateurs send in material year after year. The Museum of Ethnography provides help in the processing of subjects offering various guides, and questionnaires.

These self-taught ethnographers retrieve and conserve for posterity almost forgotten customs, tales, objects, songs of their family or village. These works are suitable — after proper selection — as sources, and are available to scholars in the archives of the country museums and of the national Museum of Ethnography.

Mrs. Kálmán Avas, “a 75 years old peasant woman”, as she decribes herself, who has been collecting cultural and objective mementoes of her village, Pankasz, and of the district of őrség for more than a decade, systematizing and describing the results of her collecting during the winter months — when her chores allow — is one of the people who continue to give such valuable help. She deposits the old farm and household objects she collected in the small local history museum at the village school.

The writer of these lines met her when he admired the beautiful 18th century belfry of Pankasz, and enquired about other mementoes of local history. The village people sent him to ‘Aunty Irén’, that is Mrs. Kálmán Avas, adding that she knew most about the past of the village and of the Őrség and she was also the keeper of the key of the museum of local history. She left her chores with a smile to show me the collection. Thanks to Aunty Irén the Museum of Ethnography now includes references to the most varied of customs, literature, music, farming, local idioms of the people of the őrség.

Mrs. Kálmán Avas submitted two of her papers to the 31st national ethnographic and dialect competition in 1983. One of them illustrated by many photographs collected reports on the fortunes of people, who migrated from the Őrség to America. These people moved to America around the year 1900. As she wrote, only a few aged people, who crossed the ocean were still alive, and she obtained, data mainly from the children and grandchildren, or neighbours. She collected material from families who returned home after a few years, or decades, in order to use their dollars they had saved to buy land and a house, following the ways of their fathers, farming on their own land. Some simply returned to retire.

She collected data relating to more than 60 migrants and their families in the őrség district, from őriszentpéter to Körmend, and recorded the stories of the people, who provided data in unchanged form. She treated the fortunes of migrants mainly from the aspects of why and how people left for overseas, how did they earn their living there, and how they used their savings when they returned.

Hungarian ethnography is really fortunate to have such rank and file people to work in the search for data and documents, that would be lost forever without them. ENDRE SZEMKEŐ

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