The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1987 (14. évfolyam, 1-8. szám)
1987-07-01 / 7-8. szám
Preservation of Birmingham's (Toledo, Ohio) Cultural Heritage: Some Random Thoughts About the "Sütni" and “Locsolás" Traditions in Birmingham by Andrew Ludanyi Professor, Department of History and Polical Science Ohio Northern University (Excerpts from the book ‘THE PRESERVATION OF ETHNIC HERITA6E' provided by The University of Toledo, Ohio) Birmingham was a fragment of culture that broke off from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Not just any part of the Austro-Hungarian Emipre, most of them came from the area, which at that time used to be northeastern Hungary, counties like Gomor, Heves, central and northeast counties like Ung, Zemplen and Abauj. These counties actually composed a very interesting blending or mixing of people. Most of them were Hungarians, but they also included a significant number of Slovaks, a significant number of Ruthenians and even a small smattering of Romanians. But, most of them, I say, at least those who settled in Birmingham, were Hungarian. Now, what should we note in particular? Well, that these people had achieved quite a blending already of different ethnic groups, but there was also religious diversity, to some extent, although the dominant religious groups were as in Hungary proper. In a sense, Birmingham is a microcosm, a small sample of what northeastern Hungary was at that time, in terms of its religious profile, and as I said in its ethnic, cultural diversity. Now. using that as the foundation, we can say that most of the people who came here were of basic peasant stock, agricultural workers; some of them came indirectly and acquired already a great deal of know-how in the iron and steel industries. A certain number were skilled laborers and a certain number were unskilled laborers, but basically the families were probably only one generation removed from the soil. And, in terms of their real background, they were of strong peasant stock. And. when they came here, they may have arrived in Toledo already with a certain amount of acquired urban civilization, whether they stopped in Cleveland (Cleveland was a stop-over place) or Pittsburgh or wherever, but basically what we have to deal with is a group of inhabitants who had strong peasant roots. Consequently, they were also very traditional in their religious orientation. They were very religious people who tended to emphasize simple values, honest values. And they also had an attachment to the soil, which they could not get rid of even when they moved into an urban center. All you have to do is take a superficial drive through Birmingham today and you know that that attachment to the soil is still there in the third generation. You look into the backyards of people, the care they take with those very small garden plots is. I think, a carry-over of this tradtion which links them with those counties in northeastern Hungary. Page 4 For one thing your forefathers, when they came out, became very busy as soon as they landed. They had to work and work hard under changed circumstances, and very likely they did not have enough time to do embroidery, or as much time to do woodcarving, or as much time to do any of those traditional folk arts which in an agricultural setting was much more natural, indeed, was a mode of relaxation, was something that tended to fill out the day. Here, on the other hand, long hours and trying to add to their financial base consumed most of their time. And then, some of the original immigrants did not even think of staying; they said, "Well, we will come and after we make a certain amount of money, we will go back to the old country and we will buy a little plot there." For most of them this was just a dream. They eventually brought out their bride or they intermarried here with one of the other ethnic groups, and eventually they became ethnic Americans in the sense that all of you are. But, the point that I am making is that there was really a gap in terms of the cultural transmission and that some of those cultural values for a short time were lost. Not all of them! Those cultural values which were not tied to everyday existence but were tied to festive occasions, like Christmas and Easter, those customs have survived intact and they have held up because those festive occasions were also church occasions, and in these instances the institutions could back up the desire for retention. It was not something that you did after you went home from work and you were exhausted after you worked a full day at the Malleable, or wherever it was. That was hard work. It was real work where sweat, blood and tears were involved and consequently little time was left for the upkeep of folk culture. It was difficult, under these conditions, to perpetuate it. Now this is not to say that some grandmothers did not embroider or that exceptional individuals did not nurture culture, but what I am saying is that the average rank and file person did not have the time for it. The exceptions are the customs directly related to the major religious holidays and also those customs which can be used as a breakaway from the drudgery of the week-day and an example of the latter is the "sütni". ("Sütni is the infinitive of sütés (roasting). The correct Hungarian name of this custom is Szalonna Sütés. However, people in the neighborhood generally refer to it in the abbreviated form, simply as "sütni".) The sütni, which also exists, as I said, in the American setting, has been transformed by the environmental conditions. The sütni did not require special attention but at the same time is functional. When you had a sütni (bacon grilling), you also fed yourself. So. it was a meal and you could also sit around and socialize. At least it had a functional objective and was not just something like, say, painting a beautiful Easter egg, because to scratch a beautiful Easter egg you needed to take extra time out of your days. So, only a few exceptional people in the community were able to retain either the art of embroidery, the art of woodcarving, the art of bone carving, or of Easter egg coloring. Let me get back to the sütni, because that is the specific type of custom that I would like to trace for you as to how it was in Hungary and as to how it is here, in Birmingham today. Actually you know more than I do as to how it is here in
