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Csángós

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Ceangăi / Csángó
Regions with significant populations
Romania (Moldavia), Hungary (Tolna)
Languages
Csango, an old dialect of Hungarian[1][2]; Romanian
Religion
Roman Catholics (almost exclusively)

The Csango people (Romanian: Ceangăi, Hungarian: Csángók) are an ethnic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County. Their traditional language, Csango, an old Hungarian dialect is still in use, though the larger part of them speak Romanian.

Name

The etymology has been explained by a Hungarian word meaning "which sounds unpleasant", referring to the peculiar sibilating way in which they pronounced certain Hungarian consonants.[4][5][6]

History, culture, identity

2001 Report of the Council of Europe

For centuries, the self-identity of the Csangos was based on the Roman Catholic religion and the Hungarian language spoken in the family.[1] It is generally accepted by serious scholars (Hungarian but also Romanian) that the Csangos have a Hungarian origin and that they arrived in Moldavia from the west[1]. Some Romanian authors claim that the Csangos are in fact “magyarised” Romanians from Transylvania. This theory has also to be dismissed: it is not conceivable that these “Romanians” could persist in using a “foreign” language after centuries of living in Romania surrounded by Romanian speaking Romanians[1]. Whatever can be argued about the language of the Csangos there is no doubt that this is a form of Hungarian which belongs to the Finno-Ugrian family.[1]

The Council of Europe has expressed its concerns about the situation of the Csángó minority culture[2], and discussed that the Csángós speak an early form of Hungarian and are associated with ancient traditions, and a great diversity of folk art and culture, which is of exceptional value for Europe. It was also mentioned that although not everybody agrees on this number it is thought that between 60 000 and 70 000 people speak the Csángó language. The Council has also expressed concerns that despite the provisions of the Romanian law on education and the repeated requests from parents there is no teaching of Csángó language in the Csángó villages, as a consequence, very few Csángós are able to write in their mother tongue. The document also discussed that the Csángós make no political demands, but merely want to be recognized as a distinct culture and demand education and church services in the Csángó language.

In the time of this report's release, the Vatican expressed hope that the Csangos will be able to celebrate Catholic masses in their liturgical language, Csango.[7]

Comments of the government of Romania, dissenting opinion on behalf of the Romanian delegation

The situation of Csango community may be understood by taking into consideration the results of 2002 census. 1769 persons declared themselves Csango. Most of them live in Bacau County, Romania, and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. During the last years, some statements identified all Catholics in Bacau County (119.618 persons according to 2002 census) as Csango. This identification is rejected by most of them, who did identify themselves as Romanians.[3]


The name Csango appeared relatively recently, being used for the first time, in 1780 by Petru Zold.[8] The name Csango is used to describe two different ethnic groups:

  • those concentrated in the county of Bacǎu (the southern group) and in the area surrounding the city of Roman (the northern group). We know for certain that these people are not Szeklers. They are Romanian in appearance, and the majority of them speak a Transylvanian dialect of Romanian and live according to Romanian traditions and customs. These characteristics suggest that they are Romanians from Transylvania who have joined the Romanian Catholic population of Moldavia.
  • those of Szekler origin, most of whom settled in the valleys of the Trotuş and the Tazlǎu and, to a lesser extent, of the Siret. Their mother tongue is the same as that spoken by the Szeklers, and they live side by side with Romanians.[8]

Hungarian sources

Migration of the Hungarian Csángós

The Csangos did not take part in the language reform of the Age of Enlightenment and the bourgeois transformation that created the modern consciousness of nationhood (cf. Halász 1992, Kósa 1998), and who did not have a noble strata or intelligentsia (cf. Kós 1981) that could have fashioned their consciousness as Hungarians (Halász 1992: 11), were “saved” (Kósa 1998: 339) from “assimilation” with the Romanians by virtue of their Roman Catholic religion, which distinguished them from the majority Greek Orthodox society.[9]

Their music shows the characteristic features of Hungarian music and the words of their songs are mostly Hungarian, with some dialect differences.[10]

Romanian sources

The so called Csangos, the Roman-Catholic inhabitants of the western part of Moldavia, have been the object of numerous disputes between the Romanians and the Hungarians regarding their origin, their culture, their traditions and the ethnical minority they belong to.[11]

The explanation is rather simple: if the Magyar irredentist circles could acknowledge the Csangos as Magyar ethnics from the number and percentage of the Magyar ethnics in Romania would definitely be larger and it would justify, in the eyes of the people, the territorial claims they have. On the other hand, Hungary is interested in the Csango matter in a geostrategical manner because it is interested in crossing the Carpathians. This way the so called Csango-land would become an outpost of the so long dreamed autonomous Szekler county. These assertions belong to the director of the European Center of Studies Covasna-Harghita, Ioan Lacatusu.[11]

This fact is demonstrated by the heavy names which are involved in solving the so called Csango problem and in persuading the officials of the European Union that Romania cannot integrate unless the minimum wrights and liberties of the minority ( let us not forget the Transylvanian Memorandum presented at Bruxelles by Laszlo Tokes himself, or the letter conceived by other such grey eminences and signed by many decent manipulated Magyars to the integration commissioner Ollie Rehn in which the desperate situation of the Romanian Magyars; or the movie Made in Romania presented to the European Parliament which referred exclusively to the Csango situation). Unfortunately, with all this fuss about the subject, the European Union decided that Romania could join regardless of these conditions…[11]

Considering the fuss made about this, who would believe that in Romania there are approximately 1266 Csangos, 307 of them having Magyar as their native tongue, 910 Romanians, 37 Csangos, 3 Rroma and 9 with undeclared native tongue.[11]

The Romanian official censuses in Moldva:[12]

year Roman Catholics in Moldva Csángo-Hungarians in Moldva
1859 52.881 37.825
1899 88.803 24.276
1930 109.953 23.894
1992 240.038 3.098

Controversy

Hungarian sources

In 2001 the Romanian authorities banned teaching the Hungarian language in private houses of Klézse village despite the commendation of the Council of Europe.[13] The chances or rather the lack of chances of adjusting to official Romanian educational system must be mentioned, too. After 1990 parents in Klézse (Cleja), Pusztina (Pustiana) and Lészped (Lespezi) requested several times that their children could learn Hungarian language at school either as an optional language or as their native language, in 1-4 lessons a week. They did not want education in Hungarian but teaching Hungarian language to their children. At best their petition was registered, but in most cases it was ignored. With the help of various forms of intimidation and humiliation, the Moldavian Romanian nationalist triumvirate (church, state authorities and school) achieved their aim: in no Moldavian village did parents made any request for term 2001/2002. Seeing the possibility of organizing Hungarian courses outside school they gave up the humiliating process of writing requests without results but causing lots of troubles. The MCSMSZ maintains its standpoint according to which the community should claim their legal right, but parents are not so determined. Leaders of the school inspectorate in County Bákó (Bacău) as well as the authorities and the church declared at a meeting that they do not want to give any chance to the official instruction of Hungarian in Csángó villages12. In their opinion the Csángós are of Romanian origin, and some sporadic requests for teaching Hungarian at schools reflect not real parental demand but Hungarian nationalist ambitions all around the Carpathian Basin.[14]

In the village of Magyarfalu (Arini in Rumanian) the village mayor and the Rumanian-only teachers of the state school, filed a complaint with the local police about the “unlawful teaching activities” of Mr. Gergely Csoma. Mr. Csoma teaches Hungarian, the native language of the Csango people, as an extra-curricular activity to the children of Magyarfalu. Following the complaint, the local police started an intimidation campaign among the mothers of those children who are studying their maternal language with the said teacher.[15]

In 2008 members of the European Parliament have sent in a petition to the European Commission on the obstruction of the Hungarian language education and the intimidation of Csango-Hungarian pupils in Nagypatak (Valea Mare, Moldova, Romania).[16] As a feedback on the petition of László Tőkés MEP, the leader of the High Commission on Minority Affairs responded: in a written notice they would warn Romania to secure mother tongue education for the Csango Hungarians of Moldova.[16]

Romanian sources

Turning Romanian communities from Moldavia into servants of Magyars, Poles, Germans, Australians, Italians was pursued by convincing Romanians from Moldavia to become catholics. The only ones who realized the danger were the local people who persistently resisted this switching their ethnic identity into Magyars. From 1225 to 1925 numerous missionaries from western countries have been sent here to preach catholicism and in addition making the newly converted people embrace Magyar language and nation.[11]

The natives were forced to subject to the will of the missionaries in order to avoid conflicts with the authorities who had political understandings which were more important than the well- being of the christians.[11]

In these schools especially trained in Magyar language teachers have been brought and they were paid according to the presence of their students in classes because they didn’t have anyone to teach. These teachers have been repeatedly banned from the communities they visited, the villagers manifesting a very hostile attitude towards the missioners, telling them: "Go home, we are Romanians!" [11]

Population

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of the Csángó because of the elusive nature and multiple factors (ethnicity, religion and language) of Csángó identity.

As far as ethnic identification is concerned, in the census of 2002, 4,317 declared themselves Hungarians and 796 declared themselves Csángó in Bacău County, reaching a total of 5,794 out of the county's total population of 706,623. The report of the Council of Europe estimates a Csango population of 260000[1].

In terms of religious affiliation, the total number of Roman Catholics in Moldavia is 239,938 (2002 census), but only 43% of these live in settlements where Hungarian is spoken. As far as language use is concerned, the Council of Europe gives estimates that put the total number of Hungarian-speaking Csángó people between 60,000 and 70,000, "Although not everybody agrees on this number" (it may be higher or lower).[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Csango minority culture in Romania". Committee on Culture, Science and Education. Council of Europe. 2001-05-04. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  2. ^ a b c "Recommendation 1521 (2001) — Csango minority culture in Romania". Parliamentary Assembly. Council of Europe.
  3. ^ a b "Comments of the government of Romania on the second opinion of the Advisory Committee on the implementation of the framework convention for the protection of national minorities in Romania" (PDF). Government of Romania. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
  4. ^ Alexandru Ciorănescu, Dicţionarul etimologic român, Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, 1958-1966 ceangău
  5. ^ Erdmann D. Beynon, "Isolated Racial Groups of Hungary", Geographical Review, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Oct., 1927), pp. 604
  6. ^ Anna Fenyvesi (2005). Hungarian Language Contact Outside Hungary: Studies on Hungarian as a Minority Language. p. 174. ISBN 9781588116307.
  7. ^ "Csángó anyanyelvű oktatás". Népszabadság (in Hungarian). 2001-11-14. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  8. ^ a b "Appendix 2 — Dissenting opinion presented by Mr Prisǎcaru on behalf of the Romanian delegation". Delegation from Romania. Council of Europe. 2001-05-04. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  9. ^ Balázs Soross. ""Once it shall be but not yet" – Contributions to the complex reality of the identity of the Csangos of Moldavia reflected by a cultural anthropological case study".
  10. ^ Palma Szirmai. "A Csángó-Hungarian lament". University of Illinois Press. JSTOR. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g "History. Fragments from the Csango past". Ceangaii, the Roman Catholic from Moldova.
  12. ^ Hungarians of Moldva [1]
  13. ^ "Betiltották a csángók magyaróráit" (in Hungarian).
  14. ^ "The Moldavian Csángós want to learn Hungarian". Homepage of the Hungarian Csángós.
  15. ^ "Rumanian Atrocities Against the Csango Minority". Homepage of the Hungarian Csángós.
  16. ^ a b "The issue of Hungarian Education in Moldova, Romania in front of European Parliament". The Association of the Csango Hungarians of Moldova. 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
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