Popular culture of Roman Catholics in Moldavia

Culture is above all the unity of the artistic style in all the manifestations of the life of a people. Roman Catholics in Moldova still preserve the archaic values and even if they do not realize them so frequently, they feel protected in the shelter of this universe, structured according to mysterious ordinances, established by the forerunners. All the components of the traditional civilization from the Roman Catholic settlements in Moldova are characterized by a strong unity and bear the unmistakable stamp of Romanian spirituality. The signs of archaicness and duration can be easily identified in all compartments of traditional folk culture: traditional folk architecture, interior textiles, folk costumes, calendar customs, customs related to birth, wedding, funeral, folklore. The traditional popular civilization of the Roman Catholics in Moldova is an argument that convincingly argues for the antiquity, specificity and unity of Romanian ethno-folk creation, being at the same time a defining testimony of the Romanian ethnicity of these people. The movement of people between Transylvania and Moldova is a recognized phenomenon, due to which the connections between the Romanians of the two provinces were constant and strong. Of course, due to the disadvantaged status of the Romanian population in Transylvania until the Union of 1918, the flow was from this province to Moldova and not in the opposite direction. When the situation of the Transylvanian Romanians became unbearable at home, they took refuge in Moldova, where the rulers, in order to accumulate labor and taxpayers, granted them various facilities. This is how the Romanians arrived in Moldova, their settlement in the area being accelerated and more numerous starting with the 18th century. During their stay in Transylvania, they were subjected, to varying degrees, to the processes of secession and Hungarianization, which, in essence, involved learning the Hungarian language at a popular level and, most often, replacing Romanian names with their translations. in Hungarian. The traditional dress, architecture, folklore, traditions and customs, have been preserved until today and so we can see that they have correspondences and relatives that go as far as identifying with the cultural space of Romanians in Transylvania. The speech of the Romanian Transylvanian speech is also justified, knowing that the Moldovan Catholics do not use the Romanian speech from Moldova, which eliminates the theories that support their Romanianization through contact with the natives of this province. The popular dress of Moldovan Catholics contributes, to a large extent, to the understanding of their Romanian origin and identity. Roman Catholics in Moldova are the keepers of the oldest traditions of Romanian dress in this part of the country. The old dress, which they still wear today, is unmistakable and has a strong personality, which is manifested by the fact that it preserves, unaltered, the fundamental elements of the Thracian-Illyrian substratum. The stylistic and morphological peculiarities highlighted by the traditional holiday dress of the Catholic population of Moldova undoubtedly plead for the Romanian origin of these believers. The unity in variety, as well as the specifics of the holiday costume worn by Moldovan Catholics, also results from the fact that these clothes fit the sculptural vision of the Romanian dress. The combination of functional criteria with artistic achievement, the production of practical and beautiful pieces is also the result of a long tradition, passed down from generation to generation, forming the basis of the morphological unity of the Romanian port which includes the traditional costume of Catholics in Moldova. Some components of peasant clothing still retain traces of archaic beliefs about how to distribute ornaments or use accessories. In the villages of the Moldavian Catholics, some very old carols are still preserved, being survivors of the Daco-Roman heritage. Carol, secular or religious, evolved from epic to lyrical form, adapting primitive motifs to the Christian religion. Carols are sometimes critical and sometimes praise the hosts. In some villages there are still variants of the mioritic carol. Religious carols are often found in Moldovan Catholic villages with the same Christian inspiration and sometimes based on verses identical to those used in Orthodox communities. The plow as a form of popular culture is the best known New Year's custom that circulates without exception in all villages of Moldovan Catholics. The plow is a tradition inspired by the main occupation of Moldovan Catholics - agriculture. The texts circulating in the villages of the Moldovan Catholics are slightly different, having specific peculiarities from one area to another or from one locality to another. The games with animal and human masks date from the pre-Christian era and are still very widespread in the villages of Moldovan Catholics. Animal masks representing goats, goats, goats, horses, deer and bears are especially used. These customs are sometimes accompanied by large-scale folk events organized during the same period, events in which most of the villagers participate, one of the best known being the "goat's dance". The preserved language elements from Transylvania, as well as the characteristic of the whistling speech, proper only to the Romanian linguistic area since the language formation period, clearly demonstrate that the ancestors of the Roman Catholics in Moldova spoke Romanian when they were in Transylvania and that it has always been their mother tongue. The language called csangos is inherited - only by some Catholics - during their stay in Transylvania, being a Hungarian language partially mastered, only orally and encumbered by many elements specific to the Romanian language, meant to represent a way of communication with Szekler or Hungarian neighbors. Once in Moldova, some Catholics, in an early stage of secession or Hungarianization, naturally abandoned the csango language, and those who were more strongly secessionized or Hungarianized kept this language, which still has no writing today. It is significant that the Szekler priest Zold Peter himself, the father of the false csango-Hungarian ethnonym, noted about Moldovan Catholics that they speak bad Hungarian. And this in 1781, when the Catholics who arrived from Transylvania had not had time to withstand the supposed assimilative pressures of the Orthodox natives. As can be seen today, the dances and dress of Roman Catholics in Moldova fit perfectly into the traditional Romanian area, a membership that can be confirmed by researchers and anyone who is in good faith. All aspects of the traditional popular culture of the Moldovan Roman Catholics, demonstrate their Romanian origin and their belonging to the Romanian cultural space, giving these "csangos" specific features of the Romanian people.

Popular architecture of Roman Catholics in Moldova

The traditional houses of the Roman Catholics from Moldova fit into the type of the traditional Romanian house, today tending towards the construction of houses with modern features. Contemporary constructions do not permanently remove the tradition, aiming to achieve a superior aesthetic value in line with the tastes of those who found them. For the former Catholic peasant, the house was not just a simple object, a shelter to protect him from the weather or other inconveniences. He also saw in the house a spiritual space, that is, not only for the maintenance of daily life, but also for the promotion of cultural values. The house means family, identity, but at the same time it expresses a certain mentality. The peasant house is first and foremost a place, a good place, a generator in a material and spiritual sense. This place, whether it looks at the interior space or at the courtyard or the garden, is seen as a place with specific qualities, which make man exist in his own way. People know that places are not all the same. Some can be good, generating luck, prosperity and happiness, others, on the contrary, bring trouble. The construction of a house has always been a special event for any family of Roman Catholics in the Moldovan area, highlighting the resources of the environment in which they were. From the category of traditional architectural constructions we mention the single-celled house, to which would later be added the awning, which also acquired the function of a pantry, then the house with a room, hall and chiler or and, finally, the two-room house and cold porch, the type more widespread in the twentieth century and which we encounter frequently today. They are the most widespread dwellings in Moldova and are characterized by a strong unity, the zonal differentiations being barely noticeable. As everywhere in the country, the villages of the Catholics in Moldova are being modernized from day to day, in line with the demands of today's life. The standardized constructions and even the more sophisticated villas try to capitalize, critically and selectively, the basic elements of the tradition, so that the preoccupation for obtaining an increased comfort does not ignore the requirements of the integration in the autochthonous architectural landscape. The settlements of Moldovan Catholics bear all the characteristics of the Romanian and Moldovan rural habitat, some of them being identified in all aspects with those of the Orthodox population. The rural architecture preserved by the Moldavian Catholics is present in their settlements in all forms of localities from the scattered and to the gathered ones being found in the architectural constructions in the village having as external limit the border sometimes guarded by anthropomorphic pillars, crosses or crosses. The houses of the Moldavian Catholics are made of beams placed in crowns or on forks, of waders or adobe, placed on the soles or directly on the ground, with the roof in four waters, specific to the traditional Romanian house. The interiors of traditional peasant houses in the settlements of Moldovan Catholics reveal a cultural universe that concentrates the skill, talent and wisdom of many generations. Here you can find real collections of wiping, lacquering, walling, bark or carpets made with floral, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic decorative motifs or with geometric motifs specific to the Romanian area.

DOCUMENTS AND STUDIES

about the popular culture of the Moldovan Roman Catholics

1 . The letter of a villager from Săbăoani, from the end of the 19th century, addressed to Bishop Nicolae Camilli. The letter refers to the traditions of Roman Catholics and is written in Romanian. - read here>>>

Education in Roman Catholic communities in Moldova

Attempts to introduce education in Hungarian language, in schools in localities with a Roman Catholic population

The end of the Second World War and the significant political changes in Eastern and Central Europe did not bypass Romania either. Thus, after August 23, 1944, the Romanian political scene began to be taken over by the Romanian Communist Party, the new political force logistically supported by the USSR. The destruction of the old democratic political regime, an action crowned with the King's abdication, opened in Romania a new page of history, which marked, mostly in a negative way, the evolution of the Romanian society. The start of the process of building socialist society, on the ruins of the old interwar democracy, was not only aimed at achieving transformations in the economic system but, on the contrary, a washing of the conscience of Romanians, which should eventually lead to the emergence of the new man. The imposition of the single party, in February 1948, with the establishment of the Romanian Workers' Party, was the spring that triggered what was called the new national policy, focused on the idea that the socialist society is made up only of working people. As a result, in order to achieve a better control of the Romanian society, the leading circles of that time, under the direct support of the one who was nicknamed Stalin, moved to a new policy of exacerbating the nationalism of the cohabiting nationalities in Romania. Consequently, in order to reflect the "deep democracy of our socialist order," within this broader current, a special place has been reserved for education in the mother tongue. Another step taken in the same direction was the establishment of central and county councils of German, Hungarian and other nationalities. However, in the unfolding of the Cultural Revolution, the role of primadonna returned to education. As a result, on August 3, 1948, the new law for the so-called education reform was adopted, which subsequently underwent several changes in 1968 and 1978. According to the 1948 version, a priority of the Ministry of Public Education has become the organization of education in minority languages. Thus, starting with 1949, the forum began to develop curricula for teaching in Ukrainian, Serbian, Russian, Tatar, Slovak, Greek, Bulgarian, Armenian, Yiddish, Croatian, Turkish, Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian. If, for the most part, the organization of education in those languages responded to concrete ethnic realities, satisfying their needs, there were some excesses, which had no justification, if we take into account the realities on the ground. To be more explicit, it is about organizing education in the Hungarian language of instruction in Moldova. If in Transylvania he responded to undeniable ethnic realities, instead, his imposition, as we will see, forced on the Catholic communities in the former Bacău Region was only a political gesture aimed at undermining those communities. In essence, this measure is all the less explicable as, with the beginning of the organization of Hungarian language education in the Bacău Region, in the school year 1948/1949, a census was conducted in the rural area concerned, where the Catholic population declared "origin , Romanian nationality and citizenship ”. Moreover, in Luizi Călugăra commune, the beginning of the new form of education in Hungarian was a disaster, because, in the period preceding the opening of the 1948/1949 school year, over 100 inhabitants of that commune refused to enroll children in the language school. Hungarian teaching, requesting a Romanian language school from the authorities. But, knowing the attitude of the Communist Party towards individual human rights, the authorities of the time, not taking into account the signals coming from the territory and the people's choices, decided to continue the process of organizing Hungarian language education in Moldova. Thus, in order to achieve the proposed objectives, the authorities decided to adopt a sharper position, starting in a first phase to force school principals so that "education in Hungarian will bear better and better results". A first reaction to the policy pursued by the School Inspectorate was the division of the respective communities, in fact the enmity of the children among them, "who sometimes hate each other" because of the form of education they followed, as happened in Faraoani commune. Unfortunately, the communist authorities did not understand from these disturbances, which began to manifest themselves in the communities of Moldovan Catholics, except that these "attitudes produce serious difficulties in solving the national problem." The solution found by the forum in question was "to work with the parents on the national issue" and not the abandonment of the project, which generated a state of abnormality in Catholic communities. Consequently, knowingly ignoring the signals coming from the territory, which indicated that the initiative to set up Hungarian-language schools was inappropriate, the authorities put into practice a vast program for the development of those educational institutions. Thus, the number of Hungarian language schools in the territory of the former Bacău Region increased rapidly, reaching in 1951 that, out of 623 elementary school units, 27 were with Hungarian language of instruction, and four of the 161 7- year-old schools were find out in the same situation. As a result, such schools operated, at that time, in the following localities: Luizii Călugăra - 7-year-old mixed elementary school, Chetriş - 4-year-old mixed elementary school, Gioseni - 4-year-old mixed elementary school, Alexandrina - Cleja commune - elementary school for 4 years, Cleja - mixed elementary school for 4 years, Şomuşca - com. Cleja - mixed elementary school for 4 years, Fundu Răcăciuni - elementary school for 11 years for boys, Liliecii de Jos - mixed elementary school for 4 years, Galbeni - com. Nicolae Bălcescu - com elementary school for 4 years, Vladnic - com. Parincea - com elementary school for 4 years, Buchila - com. Valea Seacă - mixed elementary school for 4 years, Lărguţa - com. Valea Seacă - elementary school 4 years old, Valea Seacă - 4 years mixed elementary school, Corbu - Corbu commune, Neamţ county - 4 years mixed elementary school, Hagata - Tulgheş commune, Neamţ county - 4 years mixed elementary school, Putna - com. Tulgheş - elementary school for 4 years, Recea - com. Tulgheş - ş 4-year-old mixed elementary school, Sîngeroasa - Tulgheş commune - 4-year-old mixed elementary school, Cantru - Tulgheş commune - 7-year-old mixed elementary school. In total, the respective educational units had enrolled in their statistics, in 1951, 1018 students, of which only 875 students attended the courses. Analyzing the statistics made in 1951 by the Education Section of the People's Council of the Bacău Region, it reveals the entire dimension of the effort made since 1949 and until then for the development of education in Hungarian. Thus, most schools had their own newly built premises, they were well equipped with school supplies, benches, chairs, blackboards, etc., and some of them also had their own boarding school. All this in a difficult economic period for the country and when the rest of education did not enjoy, by far, comparable conditions, because the ideological value of Hungarian language education in the Catholic communities of Moldova was too high for the political authorities. This last aspect is noticeable in the large number of scholarship holders in Hungarian schools in the Bacau Region, compared to the number of scholarship holders in Romanian schools, because the material stimulus was, among other things, one of the methods used to attract children to Hungarian schools. the fact that Catholic families were numerous, thus facing much greater material difficulties. In addition to the schools included in the first statistic of 1951, mentioned above, in a second statistic of the same year were also presented Hungarian schools in the following localities: Lespezi, com. Garleni, elementary school for 4 years; Bolovăniş, com. Ghimeş - Făget, elementary school for 4 years; Făget, com. Ghimeş - Făget, elementary school for 4 years; Tarhaus, Ghimeş commune - Făget elementary school for 4 years; Buha, com. Ghimeş - Făget, elementary school for 4 years; Ghimeş - Gară, com. Ghimeş - Făget, elementary school for 7 years; Pustiana, 4-year elementary school; Sorbi, Tescani commune, elementary school for 4 years. Analyzing the data provided by the documents consulted in the archives, I easily noticed that the period 1950 - 1953 represented the peak of the development of education in Hungarian, because then the greatest pressures were made in this direction coordinated by the Ministry of Public Education, through its department. education for minorities, and the education department of the Bacău Region. These efforts were successful in the sense that the number of Hungarian-language schools was growing until the end of the 1950s. Thus, in the address of March 31, 1953 of the Education Section of the People's Council of the Bacău Region to the Ministry of Public Education, new achievements were reported: 30 4-year elementary schools, 11 4-year Romanian schools with Hungarian sections, a school of 7 years and an average. Compared to the previous year, 9 more Hungarian sections were set up in Romanian schools, a 7-year school and a pedagogical school with mixed teaching in Bacău. On this occasion, the number of children enrolled in these schools increased, in 1953 being reviewed 2229 children in grades I-IV, of which it was made in the first quarter - 2071, second quarter - 2129 and third quarter - 2193. the reviewed amount was due to the fact that the teachers did not fulfill their schooling plan, such as in Somuşca, Cleja commune, Columbaş Magda teacher, in Luizi Călugăra - Silaghi Clara teacher, in Cleja - Gherghel Margareta teacher, etc. In the second cycle, the plan task was 315 students, out of which a number of 307 was achieved, because some students evaded on the grounds that they were not helped with scholarships (example - at Luizi Călugăra 6 students). On this occasion, analyzing the quality of education, it was found that it is very poor in some areas, such as Gioseni, Satul Nou, etc., because school control could only be done administratively, in the district education departments there is no Hungarian-speaking teacher. A few years later, with the census of children to be educated in the Bacau Region (on 28.01.1958), there is a decrease in the number of students who were to learn Hungarian. Out of a total of 302,088 children born between 1944 - 1954 and registered on January 26, 1958, 300,652 children were enrolled in Romanian-language schools and only 1436 were enrolled for school in Hungarian. Most of them, respectively 1409, were domiciled in rural areas, and the rest, 27 in number, in urban areas. Basically, the beginning of the '50s marked the apogee of the expansion of Hungarian language education in the Bacău region, a reality that determined the leaders of the Education Department of the People's Council to find that in 1952/1953 it experienced a marked development compared to previous years in the spirit of solving the national problem ”. Also in this report are specified the ways used to ensure the proliferation of Hungarian language education in the villages of Moldovan Catholics. The first of them, from a certain acceptable point of view, was the establishment of schools, with new premises and facilities, which carried out their program only in Hungarian. Unfortunately, it was not used much, but, out of the desire of the local political authorities eager to report to the superiors resounding successes of their work, serious abuses were put into practice, unprecedented in other situations. When we refer to these, we have in mind the abolition of Romanian-language schools in the Catholic villages of the Bacău Region and their transformation into Hungarian-language schools. Thus, through a simple feather feature, not taking into account the realities on the field, the children who until then had learned at school in Romanian were transferred, overnight, to the curriculum with teaching in Hungarian. Only the commission of this administrative abuse allowed the artificial development of schools with teaching in Hungarian, creating the impression of a mass phenomenon inscribed in a normality conceived by the leaders of socialist education. The direct consequence of these measures was the transformation of a large number of Romanian-language schools into Hungarian-language schools. According to the report of the Education Section of the People's Council of the Bacău Region, addressed on 04.03.1953 to the Ministry of Public Education, the following Romanian school units were cosmetized, becoming, overnight, Hungarian: the 4-year elementary school from Tg. Trotuş, the 4-year-old elementary school in Oneşti, the 4-year-old elementary school in Tuta, the elementary schools in Satu Nou, Nicoreşti, Vladnic, Buchila, Lărguţa, Somuşca, Alexandrina, all from the former Bacău District, the 4-year- old elementary school in Lespezi, from the former Buhuşi District, the elementary schools from Pustiana and Sârbi, from the former Moineşti District. Practically, following the anachronistic measures taken, a number of 1311 students, divided into classes as follows: cl. I - 298, cl. II - 300, cl. III - 266, cl. IV - 283, cl. V - 97, cl. VI - 32 and cl. VII - 29, who were of Romanian nationality and until then studied in schools with Romanian language of instruction, became, due to the will of some officials, of csango - Hungarian nationality and students of the school with Hungarian language of instruction. The measure affected not only the children, but also their parents and a number of 57 teachers, who had served the respective schools with teaching in Romanian. The cynicism of the party activists, who endorsed the activity of the Education Section attached to the People's Council of the Bacău Region, did not stop only here. But, in the same report, drawn up on March 4, they considered that "there are still some villages in which Romanian language schools had to be abolished", although in addition to them there were Hungarian language teaching units, because, starting with the 1953 school year / 1954, "to transform all classes, progressively, into classes with the Hungarian language of instruction". In this sense, the following schools were targeted: 7-year-old school from Pârgăreşti, Neamţ County, Elementary Schools from Bahna, Oituz, Galbeni, Nicolae Bălcescu, Valea Seacă, Valea Mare, Faraoani, Buda-Cleja, Fundu Răcăciuni, Gioseni, Osebiţi , Luizii Călugăra. That measure was to affect another 646 primary school students. The forced conversion of students from Romanian-language schools to those who taught in Hungarian fully explains the fact that, only a few years after the launch of this initiative, the number of students attending school in Hungarian has reached exceeding the figure 1500. Thus, in a new report of the Department of Education, addressed to the Ministry of Public Education, in the same year 1953, the Bacău authorities requested that the same destination be assigned to Romanian schools in the following villages: Stuf, Găidar, Ciocani, Valea Rea , Church and Beauty. Moreover, far exceeding the responsibilities they had been tasked with, the same officials asked the ministry to introduce the Hungarian language in schools in the regions bordering Bacau, "where there are not many concerns in this area." In this sense, the following localities were targeted: Bălăuşeşti, Bărtăreşti, Gherăieşti, Săbăoani, Traian communes - from Iaşi county; com. Poscuţeni and Găiceana - from the Bârlad region. What is striking about the text of this report, mentioned above, is the writing in a Hungarianized form of the names of the respective communes from the former Iaşi and Bârlad regions. The signatories of this document, the head of the education department C. Vlad and the inspector for minorities Kardos I., exceed any limit of normality when they request, in addition, "the introduction of the end-of-year exam in Hungarian in Romanian language schools", where is considered as an object of study, probably considering that the Hungarian language school and the Hungarian language sections next to the Romanian schools are insufficient for the “world dimension of the Hungarian language” and that everyone should know and use this language. They only took over and developed the initiative of the predecessor Kerekeş Irma, to whom we owe the initiative of introducing the Hungarian language in the Romanian language schools, which existed in the Catholic villages. The attitude adopted by those who endorsed the activity of the Education Department attached to the People's Council of the Bacau Region, unequivocally highlights the way in which the introduction of this form of education in the Catholic communities of Moldova was thought, as well as the purpose pursued. The decision to set up schools with teaching in Hungarian was taken arbitrarily, without the population of these villages having previously applied for Hungarian. In fact, the same population was not even questioned in this regard, to see if they wanted something like that. Simply put, the leaders of socialist Romania ordered the introduction of that form of education in an authoritarian way. The measure was meant, in their view, to contribute to solving the newly propagandistic invention of the PCR - the problem of nationalities. Hence the stubbornness with which they sought to include Moldovan Catholics in the Hungarian ethnic group. That policy had nothing to do, in reality, with the issue of cohabiting nationalities. In fact, it sought to strengthen the Communist Party's control over Romanian society through this ethnic manipulation, because solving the problem of cohabiting nationalities for socialist Romania resulted in the massive emigration of representatives of different ethnicities. The Education Department of the Bacău Region was also part of the general policy of those times, leading a strong propaganda to attract children to Hungarian-language schools. Thus, from the visits made to the parents and from the meetings with them, later it was passed to the organization of some schooling commissions besides the communal popular councils, which, “ after they went on the field and did not reach good results, called the parents to the People's Council, carrying out clarification work ". From this fragment of the report one can easily see the failure of the authorities of the time in their action to voluntarily persuade people to enroll their children in the school taught in Hungarian. Thus, the only solution for the authorities remained clarification, knowing what this type of activity meant in the 1950s, in fact, forcing parents. For the school year 1951/1952 such situations were met in Cleja, Pustiana, Nicolae Bălcescu, Oneşti. At the beginning of the school year, special measures had to be taken to clarify the people, in order to avoid putting into practice their desire to withdraw their children from the Hungarian school, as, in fact, happened to Luizi Călugăra. The authorities encountered important difficulties when they started to transform the Romanian language schools into Hungarian language schools. First of all, they faced the refusal of the parents who still wanted their sons and daughters to attend school in Romanian. Thus, in Cleja, where a Hungarian and a Romanian school were established, the population protested against the Hungarian school, and some of them, led by Istok Josif, did not leave their children at the Hungarian school. The above- mentioned mood was not an isolated, local one, but, as shown in a report sent on March 4, 1953 to the Ministry of Public Education, part of the population was neutral and most still required language school Romanian . People's opposition to the communist regime's attempts to introduce the Hungarian language school began to be blamed by the authorities on the "clerical reaction of the bourgeois-landlord past", which sought to "undermine the political value of the mother tongue school". In fact, it is known that one of the motives behind the decision to introduce the Hungarian language in Catholic schools in Moldova was to undermine the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, a major opponent of the communist regime. Through this measure, in fact, an attempt was made to produce a rupture between the parishioners and the church, because the latter held its liturgy in Romanian . Opposition to the initiative to introduce the Hungarian language were also made by the teachers, both Romanian and Hungarian, among them the reports of the time recording the following: Huţu Ioan, Zaharia Ioan, Nemetz Alexandru, Nemetz Elena, Modi Anton, Gheorghie Estera etc. . One form of opposition to the introduction of Hungarian language education was the enrollment of children in schools in other villages. A convincing example in this sense was that of Farţade Ioan, from Alexandrina village, Cleja commune, who took his child to school in Sascut. The lack of popularity of education in Hungarian was manifested not only among parents who had children at school, but also among people who were to be literate. As is well known, starting with 1945, a literacy campaign was launched in Romania for the illiterate, which, in the Catholic villages in the Bacău Region, was intended to be done in Hungarian. To these tendencies manifested by the local authorities, the persons who were to benefit from the literacy program opposed their desire to attend school in Romanian and with Romanian teachers. To this state of affairs must be added the lack of appropriate teachers, which prevented the "qualitative development of Hungarian education." Some teachers did not know the Romanian language at all or very little, which is why they could not teach the compulsory Romanian language classes, which made the dissatisfaction of the population increase even more. Under these conditions, the authorities of the time thought that "Hungarian education cannot take place in an ideal form, creating repercussions on the national problem as well". Thus, after only a few years of experience in this field, the local authorities came to the conclusion of the impossibility of the success of that form of education. The pessimistic attitude of the local authorities is very well explained, if we take into account the opposition they encountered to the Catholic population. This made it possible for the first withdrawals from the state to take place during the propaganda period of the extension of the Hungarian form of education. In this sense, the leaders of Bacău education had to give in to the wishes of the locals. A first case of this nature was encountered since 1950/1951, in the villages of Buchila and Lărguţa, where the population requested the re-establishment of Romanian language schools. In that case, the authorities initially decided to teach the Romanian language, but later took much more drastic measures. Thus, in 1953 it was decided to abolish, in fact return to the situation before 1948, due to the fact that the number of students decreased dramatically in the case of the following Hungarian schools: Nicolae Bălcescu, Chietriş, Gioseni, Liliecii de Jos. The new measures taken on that occasion signaled the end of Hungarian language education in the former Bacau Region. From that moment, the approach of the respective subject started to be made much more nuanced by the Education Section of the region and by the Ministry of Public Education. We cannot conclude the discussion regarding education in Hungarian without paying attention to a series of issues such as the development of preschool education, the situation of teachers, etc. Regarding the teachers, two constants defined the ephemeral existence of the Hungarian teaching staff in Moldova, namely: the origin entirely from the Transylvanian regions and their poor professional training. Thus, most teachers, who teach in schools in the former Bacau Region, came from the Hungarian Autonomous Region and Mureş. Their origins, from areas foreign to those where they were brought by the authorities of the time to serve the interests of the community, raised many problems regarding their presence at the post. In this direction, a constant was their absence from school and failure to appear on time. The situation has been observable since 1949 and remained topical until the dissolution of this artificial form of education imposed on Catholic communities in the eastern Carpathians. In addition, the vast majority of teachers moved to the Bacău region did not know or speak very difficult Romanian, as is the case of teacher Keresteri Viorica, from Vladnic village, Parincea commune, Bacău county. For this reason, the school curriculum developed by the Ministry of Public Education, regarding the development of courses at the Hungarian school, could not be observed, the Romanian language courses, whose number varied between 3-5 hours per week, could not be held. Faced with this problem, local authorities had to take a number of measures, which should have led to the removal of these shortcomings. In this sense, the respective measures were adopted, of which the most important were: sending teachers to specialization in ICD training courses, approving the cumulation of hours in schools with the language of minority teaching, hiring teachers in schools other than to those they held. All these were adopted by the regional authorities with the approval of the central forums, having some positive results, in the sense that, towards the end of 1959, the number of teachers who did not know Romanian at all decreased to 16:12 teachers and 4 teachers. Under pressure from the central authorities, the education department of the Bacau Region showed great concern for the personal problems of teachers serving Hungarian-language education, in stark contrast to the situation of other colleagues. Edifying in this sense are the frequent interventions of the authorities of the Bacău Region in addition to the military authorities in the areas of origin of teachers, to postpone their military service, as "Hungarian language education in the Bacău Region suffers greatly", facing an acute shortage of "cadres prepared to teach Hungarian". But the big problem, which the Hungarian teachers raised, was their poor professional training. Thus, in a statistic made in 1951 by the Education Department of the Bacău region, among the teachers who teach that language, none had adequate training, ie to be graduates of pedagogical schools. In fact, the same situation is surprised by the most complete report on the Hungarian teaching staff sent, on January 20, 1953, to the Ministry of Public Education by the Bacău authorities. Thus, according to the respective document, on the territory of the Bacău Region, there were 110 teachers in Hungarian language education, of which 56 were qualified, but, of these, only “20-30 carry conscious work”, and 54 are substitutes. The authors of the statistics in question thought that this situation fully contributed to the poor development of education in the Hungarian language. The despair of the authors, who, according to the customs of the time, should have reported successes, was so strong that they addressed the Ministry of Public Education with the following question: "what work can be done in such conditions?", Complaining to that forum. central that the teachers received by the Bacău Region "lead to disaster the course of Hungarian education which has also suffered because of this until now". In order to support Hungarian language schools, special attention was paid to the organization of kindergartens with the same language of instruction. They were established in 1948, almost a year after the adoption of the new education law. The activity plan of these preschool units was focused on conversation, games, memories and stories, in order to learn the Hungarian language by children "taking into account that the csango population does not have much Hungarian vocabulary." In practice, the role of kindergartens was to prepare children able to attend school in Hungarian, because most children in the former Bacau region had no knowledge in this field. Thus, through the care of the Inspectorate for Education in the Language of Minorities, in the school year 1951/1952, on the territory of the region operated 8 kindergartens with the Hungarian language of instruction, which had a frequency ranging between 65% and 100%. An important place in the propaganda struggle carried out at that time was occupied by the artistic activities supported by the Hungarian language schools. Thus, they were conceived, in a sense, as a source of financial support for Hungarian education. The organization of balls and festivals in rural schools was approved only on condition that the proceeds be paid to the newly established Bacău Pedagogical School - Hungarian Section. In a second sense, the artistic teams organized next to different schools, through the presented program, had to instil in the consciousness of the Catholic communities the idea of belonging to the Hungarian ethnic group. For this reason, the respective teams were equipped only with Szekler folk costumes. Moreover, on March 3, 1952, the Education Department of the Bacău Region requested the Folklore Institute - Center for Permanent Collection in Cluj to send "csango-Hungarian" songs, for the preparation of artistic teams near schools and cultural centers. These songs, improperly called Ceaăieşti - Hungarian, were collected by the Institute in Cluj from the Hungarian communities in Transylvania. However, the Bacău authorities aimed to introduce them in "our region, where we have a large number of csango-Hungarian schools". The relationship with the Folklore Institute from Cluj was cultivated by those responsible for the education in the language of minorities in Bacău, wanting a closer collaboration, which should have involved the arrival of researchers from that institute in the Bacău Region. In the end, the action was successful because, on March 10, 1953, the Institute of Cluj asked the inspector of minorities, Kardos Janos, for permission to conduct field research for Fargo Joszef and Kallos Zoltan. Finally, we would like to bring to the readers' attention some defining elements, which marked the existence of education in Hungarian on the territory of the Bacău region. First of all, we have in mind the fact that the establishment of that form of education took place after the adoption of the Education Law in 1948 and lasted, in general, until the mid-1960s. The period of almost two decades was marked by numerous disturbances and searches, which were manifested in practice by the frequent establishment and abolition of schools in the Hungarian language. All these entitle us to consider that the action itself had only an experimental character, as shown by the sources from the documentary funds present in the National Archives - Bacău Branch. The ways and means by which people and communities fulfill their purpose are in accordance with the realities of the environment in which they live and depending on the inheritances received. Therefore, religion, culture, language, customs and their evolution over time are the basis of the manifestations of each person and each community. Knowing these elements is, in fact, not only a condition for being able to grow and contribute to the general good of society, but also a happy means of self-realization and fulfillment of the call entrusted by the Creator. Based on these principles and considerations, we want to continue the spirit of research that Professor Martina had, to show the courage to tell the internal and external truth, which he knows and lives, to promote understanding, harmony, peace and brotherhood between people. , which are the characteristics of a true Christian and this time a Catholic, that is, universal, without other or exclusive interests, which would reject others, who have other beliefs and other forms of manifestation. We want to move forward, to the past and supported by the fundamental principles of Christianity, remaining faithful followers of the One who came to convince everyone that they must love each other, not to quarrel over language, social conditions or different cultures, but all to be one, thus destroying the dividing wall and establishing peace with those near and those far away (cf. Eph. 2: 22 22).

Popular traditions of Roman Catholics in Moldova

The ancestral traditions and customs preserved in the villages with Catholic population in Moldova have been preserved and passed down from generation to generation with special care, emphasizing their Romanian identity, the ancestral traditions still enjoying a special appreciation. The recourse to tradition, by observing some rules and conceptions about the world and life established in time, is another indication of the antiquity of this population, of the total identification with the Romanian nation. The unaltered preservation of the ritual-ceremonial customs, beliefs and practices, common to the entire nation of which they are part, proves the antiquity and spiritual vigor of this population. There are goods that have settled in the succession of generations, making up that immutable dowry that the ethnic specific represents. At the level of mentality, there is in the settlements of Catholics in Moldova a cult of tradition and nation, of preserving the values inherited from the elders, despite the shortcomings or injustices with which people have been confused. The traditions of Moldovan Catholics are similar, some to the point of identification with the traditions of Romanian Orthodox in the region of Moldova or with the traditions of Romanians in other historical Romanian regions, especially those of Transylvanian Romanians. Thus, the settlements of Moldovan Catholics bear all the characteristics of the Romanian and Moldovan rural habitat, some of which are identified in all respects with those of the Orthodox population. The rural architecture preserved by the Moldavian Catholics is present in their settlements in all forms of localities from the scattered and to the gathered ones being found in the architectural constructions in the village having as external limit the border sometimes guarded by anthropomorphic pillars, crosses or crosses. The houses of the Moldavian Catholics do not differ from those of the Orthodox and are made of beams placed in wreaths or forks, of waders or adobe, placed on the soles or directly on the ground, with a four-pitched roof, specific to the traditional Romanian house. They are part of the clothing of Moldovan Catholics and objects that although they are named differently than in other regions of the country are equivalent to clothing worn by women from Oltenia and Muntenia. Thus, in the villages of the Moldovan Catholics, the catrinţa is still worn as a piece of the women's folk costume that is not placed in front and behind as is customary in Oltenia and Muntenia. On holidays, he wears a plaid shirt or a shirt with a scarf. The men's folk costume is simpler and is worn today only on the occasion of religious manifestations having as component parts the straight shirt or the shirt with lapels as well as the itari made of cotton cloth or frying wool and in cold weather they wear crows made of l white called dimie or aba. Traditional customs make up an impressive repertoire accompanying the main moments in human life whose evolution is followed from birth to death. The premarital customs took place in a close relationship with some holidays - the end of the century, Easter, Christmas, the patron saint of the church, as well as with a series of folklore occasions such as the sitting, the claca, the village choir. The traditional folk folklore of Moldovan Catholics includes carols, songs, poems, fairy tales, enchantments, similar or identical to those of Romanians from other regions of the country. In the tradition of Catholic villages in Moldova, a special place is occupied by rituals closely related to the activity of farmers and animal breeders of the inhabitants as well as in connection with Christian religious holidays. Detailed information about the traditions of Moldovan Roman Catholics, arguments and evidence of their Romanian origin, can be found in the scientific papers displayed on the site.

The folklore of the Roman Catholics from Moldova

In the villages of Moldovan Catholics, the authentic Romanian folklore is still preserved, many of the songs, doines, lyrical-epic songs, game songs, shouts but also folk dances are identical to those of the Orthodox population in Moldova and some are of Transylvanian origin. The poetry and folk songs of Moldovan Catholics are archaic, those referring to the wedding ceremony, funeral ceremony or pastoral repertoire, demonstrate their Romanian identity, they are preserved and transmitted orally, from generation to generation, until today . The folk dances of the Moldovan Catholics are part of the characteristics of Romanian folklore, with its nuances specific to each geographical area (Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia), each of these areas having its own divisions with slightly different shades from one sub-area to another. Moldovan Catholics are good dancers of the Moldovan folk game, they dance with great pleasure: beat, hand dance, beat dance, hangul, old woman, Russian, Serbian, shepherd, scythe, courage, belt, old game, being well known Russian from Hălăucești, Serbian from Buruieniș , sung and danced at the parties of Moldovan Catholics, along with them being sung and danced other famous folk dances in the area of Moldova. The folklore of the Catholics, Moldovans, includes different melodic types and rhythms, depending on the chosen song, some of them being more alert, others slower, like the dances of the Romanian Orthodox. The rhythmic-melodic characteristics of the folk songs and dances of the Moldovan Catholics do not differ at all from those of the Romanian Orthodox. They are the performers of the folk dances of the Moldovan Catholics. Sometimes the dance songs sung at parties are performed by musicians, Orthodox singers or Roma (Gypsies), these being good instrumentalists and keepers of Romanian folklore, including Roman Catholics. In 1787, Count d’Hauterive, secretary of Prince Alexandru Mavrocordat, mentioned in a memorandum that the csangos of Moldavia are passionate dancers and skilled performers of Romanian dances. - Extract from the book “The origin of the csangos from Moldova” - author Dumitru Mărtinaș.

The popular costumes of the Roman Catholics from Moldova

The traditional folk costume has correspondences and relatives that go as far as identifying with the cultural space of the Romanians from Transylvania. The popular dress of the Roman Catholics (csangos) is entirely Romanian, the very creator of the false csango-Hungarian ethnonym, the Szekler priest Péter Zöld noting " … their clothing is cheap Romanian and is made by their wives… " The women's dress, better preserved than the men's, is composed of a complexity of clothing objects: shirts, hats, sundresses or coats that represent invaluable values of Romanian traditional art. The defining piece for women's clothing is the cloth which is a complex brocade made up of several beautifully ornamented elements that wrap around the head, identical to the way this clothing is worn by women from other parts of the country, called zăbranic, pomeselnic or handkerchief. They are part of the clothing of Moldovan Catholics and objects that although they are named differently than in other regions of the country are equivalent to clothing worn by women from Oltenia and Muntenia. Thus, in the villages of the Moldovan Catholics, the catrinţa is still worn as a piece of the women's folk costume that is not placed in front and behind as is customary in Oltenia and Muntenia. On holidays, he wears a plaid shirt or a shirt with a scarf. The men's folk costume is simpler and is worn today only on the occasion of religious manifestations having as component parts the straight shirt or the shirt with lapels as well as the itari made of cotton cloth or frying wool and in cold weather they wear crows made of l white called dimie or aba. The popular dress of Moldovan Catholics contributes, to a large extent, to the understanding of their Romanian origin and identity. Roman Catholics in Moldova are the keepers of the oldest traditions of Romanian dress in this part of the country. The old dress, which they still wear today, is unmistakable and has a strong personality, which is manifested by the fact that it preserves, unaltered, the fundamental elements of the Thracian-Daco-Illyrian substratum. The stylistic and morphological peculiarities highlighted by the traditional holiday dress of the Catholic population in Moldova undoubtedly plead for the Romanian origin of these believers. The unity in variety, as well as the specifics of the holiday costume worn by Moldovan Catholics, also results from the fact that these clothes fit the sculptural vision of the Romanian dress. White remains the basic color in all clothing components, as a mark of purity of soul, purity, appreciation of light. The geometry of the ornamentation of the traditional folk costume of the Catholics from the Moldavian space orders and temperes the decorative compositions and the chromatic harmonies. The combination of functional criteria with artistic achievement, the production of practical and beautiful pieces is also the result of a long tradition, passed down from generation to generation, forming the basis of the morphological unity of the Romanian port which includes the traditional costume of Catholics in Moldova. Some components of peasant clothing still retain traces of archaic beliefs about how to distribute ornaments or use accessories. All this leads to the conclusion that the so-called "csango" folk costume is an authentic Romanian folk costume. Notes on the popular dress of Roman Catholics in Moldova • Referring to the Roman Catholics from Moldova, the linguist Sever Pop (1901-1961), the author of the Romanian Linguistic Atlas, noted “The women's costume, from the region, has nothing Hungarian; on the contrary, it offers all the characteristics of the costumes from the mountainous region of Moldova ” . • In 1887, Ballagi Aladár, the president of the Hungarian Geographical Society, visited the village of Cleja in Bacău County, inhabited exclusively by Roman Catholics, on which occasion he could not hide his surprise by saying about the villagers that “…they seem to be Wallachians. Not only their dress but also their physiognomy bears the Wallachian imprint… ” . • Speaking about the Roman Catholics from Moldova, the historian Nicolae Iorga admiringly expressed his surprise at the Romanian clothing of the csangos described by him “ … with beautiful towering ports… ”, whose women wrap their heads “ … in big white brocades, in all of them are their size and the way they are caught, with those of the girls and wives of the Făgăraș mountain… ”, the great historian concluding that the csangos “ … are not nearly as foreign as one might suspect… ”. Extract from the book “The origin of the csangos from Moldova” - author Dumitru Mărtinaș The popular costumes of Roman Catholics in Moldova, as noted by the Szekler priest Zöld Péter, the creator of the name "csango-Hungarian" ("ceangău" - in Romanian). Following his passage through Moldova, the Szekler priest Zöld Péter found the existence of the population of Roman Catholic religion in this area of Romania and about these people he noted that " … their clothing is Romanian, cheap and is made by their wives… " and that they are bilingual “ … everyone knows and speaks Romanian and Hungarian… ” (in the current, ordinary speech, I use Romanian and Hungarian) but that “ … they speak Hungarian poorly… ” (in the language used there is a mixture of Romanian and Hungarian words) . The description given by the Szekler priest Zöld Péter to those whom he called “csango-Hungarian” is important because it confirms that the Roman Catholics in Moldova dress in Romanian clothes, made by them in their own households, know and speak the Romanian language better than I know and speak Hungarian. TRADITIONAL FOLK COSTUME at the time when the "csangos" were known by Zöld Péter. Roman Catholics from Moldova could not be Hungarians dressed in Romanian clothes. Roman Catholics from the time Zöld Péter visited Moldova, as well as their descendants to this day, still wore the clothing they are accustomed to, a folk costume inherited from their ancestors and traditionally used, de- over the centuries, it has been known that - all over the world - the traditional folk costume is preserved by peoples, nations, ethnic groups, groups of people, etc. this is considered a duty, an honor and a pride of the members of a community and - at the same time - it is the proof of the belonging of the persons to a certain community. In the case of the “csangos”, the Romanian folk costume, the traditional Romanian clothing worn by the Roman Catholics from Moldova, is the proof of their belonging to the Romanian nation. From the description given to the Moldovan Roman Catholics by the Szekler priest Zöld Péter, it results that the “ Romanian ” and “ cheap ” clothing, worn by them, “ is made by their wives ”, in their own households, which means that the Roman Catholic wives knew the technique of weaving the cloths necessary for making garments and dealing with this occupation spread throughout Romania, practiced in the peasant households of Romanians of Orthodox religion and Romanians of Roman Catholic religion. Tissue weaving resulting in Romanian clothing is certainly a traditional Romanian occupation and is proof that Roman Catholics who practiced this craft are Romanians, being impossible for Roman Catholics in Moldova to be Hungarian and to be assimilated by the local population and in the process of the supposed assimilation, they were forced to master the technique of the traditional Romanian fabric, resulting in Romanian clothing. This argument leads to the conclusion that Roman Catholics from Moldova are excluded to be Hungarians.