Editorial Preface
Mihály Hoppál

The aim of Hungarian Heritage is to present an overall picture of the traditional culture of Hungary, and of the Hungarian folklore revival. The preservation of our cultural heritage has become an especially important task of late. UNESCO has been financing special programs for decades to preserve world heritage sites and the samples of material culture found there: churches, palaces, groups of buildings, and so on. In the 1990s, a special program was launched to preserve and spread "traditional culture and folklore", i.e., to rescue intangible culture from oblivion, and to try to pass on traditional handicraft skills and folk wisdom. Cultural policymakers throughout the world have finally realized that the spiritual and oral parts of our cultures are a great deal more vulnerable than stones and objects and that, therefore, intellectual riches call for special protection in our rapidly globalizing world.
Hungarian Heritage, the new journal launched by the European Folklore Institute, is a part of this program. It publishes original articles on folk literature, narratives, and legends, folk music and folk dance (with special focus on the Hungarian táncház [dance hall] movement), and also looks at mythology, folk rituals, customs, and games, as well as traditional arts, crafts, and architecture. In other words, our notion of heritage comprehends the most diverse forms of traditional artistic self-expression, individual and collective alike, and always involves a value judgement. In this sense, heritage is those "objects" of our material culture that society deems worthy of being passed on to future generations. Most of these "objects" are of symbolic significance. Indeed, in many cases, it is precisely this symbolic meaning that is of the essence from the community's point of view, because it serves to define its cultural behavior. We might say that the reproduction of cultural heritage is the "grammar" of tradition.
This journal will regularly publish studies of varying lengths, theoretical articles and essays on the nature of tradition, and on the viability of the Bartókian model of the preservation of culture. (Béla Bartók's idea was to preserve folk culture by incorporating elements of it into the classical culture of the twentieth century). We will feature a regular column with reports on projects at the major workshops of traditional culture. Book reviews, as well as reviews of current exhibitions, films, videos, and sound recordings will constitute a part of every issue, as will reports on the latest folk dance and music festivals, folk dance and music camps, and folk craft fairs. The journal will also provide practical and up-to-date information on forthcoming events (festivals, fairs, exhibitions, etc.), and on new audio releases. Finally, we plan to include a photo essay in every issue by way of the visual representation of our heritage.
With such a variety of topics to choose from, the Editorial Board is hard put to present a balanced picture of this rich heritage, given its limited financial resources. We consider it our duty to not only give a faithful accounting of present-day conditions, but also to trace their historical roots, and chart the path that has led to the transformation of our traditions.
Naturally, our journal will deal with Hungary's minority ethnic groups as well, for our cultural heritage is manifold, and has been shaped by a variety of influences, the borrowed elements often living on in their original forms.
We hope to show that familiarity with one's own cultural traditions does not separate peoples and ethnic communities, but rather brings them together. What the world and Europe really need is not cultural homogeneity, but the full blossoming of each culture in its individual colors. And to appreciate and safeguard one's traditions is to preserve one's cultural identity.
We recommend our journal as useful and entertaining reading to every Hungarian, whether living in the territory of present-day Hungary or beyond its borders anywhere in the world: may it help the older generations to remember their Hungarian roots, and the younger generation to discover them.