Magyar News, 2000. szeptember-2001. augusztus (11. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-12-01 / 4. szám
Imagine that everything you hold dear is one day gone for the sacrifice of your nation. The car that you drive, the couch that you are sitting on, the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" on the color television that has become a staple of life; all gone. Imagine the job that has provided for you and your family no longer exists, what would you do? How would you react? Think of all the fear and anxiety that would accompany this horrible experience. This is the very thing that the Magyars of the 10th century had to face. They had built one of the strongest armies of all the tribes in Eastern Europe and set up a religion, language, and social system that had become ingrained in their very being. On the eve of the second thousand years the Magyars had found themselves at crossroads. Along one road they saw many of their contemporary tribes who refused to give up the life that they knew so well; the other road was paved with the opportunity for greatness. The Hungarians like Robert Frost wrote in his famous poem, "took the road less traveled and that has made all of the difference", lhis is similar to the way the nomad Hungarians built their Jurt, the summer home, at the time of the Conquest The ancient Magyars before the 10th century were considered to be pastoral nomads, who had a highly evolved system with intricate rules that featured a great understanding and love for the environment. Wealth in this system was based on livestock and animals, for the Hungarians wealth mostly consisted of horses. Pastoral nomads who protected the safety and health of their animals were forced to migrate to different areas. They would look for areas that provided the climate and political situation that would best suit the raising of animals and the safety of the people. This was much like many of the Northerners who today head to Florida in the winter months to find better weather and to play golf. The rewards have changed, but the idea is the same. The early Magyar pastoral nomads were quite different from the common stereotype of the wild raiding tribes filled with crude pirates on horses plundering everything in sight. The religion of the early Magyars was also an aspect of their culture that has been misunderstood to be primitive and crude. The early Hungarians practiced a form of animistic paganism. This religion of the Magyars closely resembled the American Indian religions that have recently become very popular for their spirituality and proenvironmental beliefs. Hungarian animism centers on nature, which fostered a great respect for their surroundings and animals in them. They believed that all things have a life force in them. This life force consists of two parts; the first translates into breath from Hungarian word “lélek.” This soul is considered to stay with the physical person, animal, or object that has died. The other part of the soul is translated into shadow. This is the part that goes into to the spiritual world. Even though the early Hungarians practiced this type of religion they were not obtuse to Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other religions that were scattered throughout oy mm. Justin Margitay-Balogh M0* The Archabbey of Pannonhalma established in 996 was built from the endowment made by Géza and St. Stephen.
