Csángó Táncház - Minority Culture - Identity

extract, Ildikó Sándor (Budapest)

Csángó táncház [dance-house] events, which began in the late 1980s, represent a unique trend within the framework of the thirty-year-old táncház movement in Hungary. They differ from regular Hungarian táncházak in their character, and enjoy exceptional popularity even beyond the circles of those interested in folk traditions. Their popularity did not decline in times when other, long-established táncházak had to close their doors.
The popularity of Moldavian táncház events made more widely known the archaic traditional culture of the Csángós, which was still alive in the late 1980s, and at the same time drew attention to the situation of this ethnic minority living in Romania. Today both civil institutions and politicians in Hungary and Romania are concerned with the fate of this ethnic group, which had hardly ever been mentioned earlier. The question was also raised on an international level, and the revival movement to discover and preserve the traditions of the Moldavian Csángós has been an important part of it.

The Zurgó Band playing in the táncház (Budapest, 1997). Photo: Mátyás Bolya.