| Total population |
|---|
| 1,370 persons declared to be Csangos - (2002 census)[1]
119,618 persons declared Catholic faith in Bacău County (2002 census) [2] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Romania (Moldavia), Hungary (Tolna) |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
Roman Catholics (almost exclusively) |
The Csango people (Romanian: Ceangăi, Hungarian: Csángók) are a Hungarian ethnographic 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.
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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.[5][6][7]
Perugia, 14 November 1234: Pope Gregory IX to Bela IV, king of Hungary
"In the Cuman bishopric - as we were informed - is living a people called Vallah and others, Hungarians and Germans as well, who came here from the Hungarian Kingdom."
Roman, 13 April 1562: Report of the Habsburg Agent, John Belsius, to the Emperor Ferdinand the First
"On the day of the 10th of April, Despot Vodă left Hîrlău (Horlo) to Tîrgul Frumos (Zeplak = Szeplak) finally on the 12th to the fortress of Roman (Romanvarasch)" Despot Vodă ordered me to write these: Alexandru Moldoveanul forced all the nations, with no exceptions, to be baptized again and to follow the religion of the Moldavians, taking them away from their own religion, he appointed a bishop of the Saxons and the Hungarians, to rebuild the confiscated churches and to strengthen their souls in their beliefs, and his name is Ian Lusenius, and is Polish."
After 1562: Notes of the Humanist Johann Sommer about Saxons in Moldavia, from his work about the Life of Jacob-Despot, the Ruler of Moldavia
"Despot was unyielding in punishment, especially against the ones who don't respect the sanctity of marriage, -according to the habit of those people-: this habit was copied by the Hungarians and Saxons living here, in this country (Moldavia). He started to build a school in Cotnari, which is mostly inhabited by Hungarians and Saxons."
Iasi, 14 January 1587: Bartolomeo Brutti's letter to Annibal de Capua
"These Franciscans are very few and they speak neither German, nor Hungarian, so they can't take spiritual care of these catholics, 15000 in number.
Roman 1588: The First Jesuit Mission in Moldavia Written by Stanislaw Warszewicki
"In the whole region in 15 towns and in all the neighborhood villages there are Hungarians and Saxons, but most of them don't know how to read, don't even recognize the letters."[8]
Miron Costin (17th century Moldavian writer): Grausame Zeiten in der Moldau 1980(German translation) Chapter 18 par 28 about Csangos massacre few German soldiers
Munich Codex: Hussite translation of the New Testament to Hungarian dated in the text in 1466 in Moldavia Hungarian edition (text original Old Hungarian with modernized script, foreword, introduction in modern Hungarian, dictionary in German and Hungarian)link
For centuries, the self-identity of the Csangos was based on the Roman Catholic religion and the Hungarian language spoken in the family.[3] 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.[3] 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.[3] Whatever can be argued about the language of the Csangos there is no doubt that this is a form of Hungarian.[3]
The Council of Europe has expressed its concerns about the situation of the Csángó minority culture,[4] 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.
At 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.[9]
The situation of Csango community may be understood by taking into consideration the results of 2002 census. 1,370 persons declared themselves Csango.[1] Most of them live in Bacău County, Romania, and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. During the last years, some statements identified all Catholics in Bacău County (119.618 persons according to 2002 census) as Csango. This identification is rejected by most of them, who did identify themselves as Romanians.[2]
The name Csango appeared relatively recently, being used for the first time, in 1780 by Petru Zold.[10] The name Csango is used to describe two different ethnic groups:
Their music shows the characteristic features of Hungarian music and the words of their songs are mostly Hungarian, with some dialect differences.[11]
The anthem of the Csangos refers to Csango Hungarians multiple times.[12][13]
The Csangos did not take part in the language reforms of the Age of Enlightenment, or the bourgeois transformation that created the modern consciousness of nationhood (cf. Halász 1992, Kósa 1998). They did not have a noble stratum or intelligentsia (cf. Kósa 1981) that could have fashioned their consciousness as Hungarians (Halász 1992: 11). They 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.[14]
The Csangos, the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the western part of Moldavia, have been the object of numerous disputes between Romanians and Hungarians regarding their origin, their culture, their traditions and the ethnical minority they belong to.[15]
Official Romanian censuses in Moldavia indicate the following:[16]
| year | Roman Catholics in Moldavia | Hungarians in Moldavia |
|---|---|---|
| 1859 | 52,881 | 37,825 |
| 1899 | 88,803 | 24,276 |
| 1930 | 109,953 | 23,894 |
| 1992 | 240,038 | 3,098 |
In 2001 the Romanian authorities banned the teaching of the Hungarian language in private houses of Klézse village despite the recommendation of the Council of Europe.[17] 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 the 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 the teaching of the 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 make 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. The MCSMSZ maintains its standpoint according to which the community should claim their legal rights, but the population is not so determined. Leaders of the school inspectorate in County Bacău as well as the authorities and the church declared at a meeting that they do not want to give any possibility that the official instruction of Hungarian in Csángó villages12 could become a reality. 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.[18]
In the village of Arini (Magyarfalu in Hungarian) the village mayor and the Romanian-only teachers of the state school, filed a complaint with the local police about the "unlawful teaching activities" of Gergely Csoma. Csoma teaches Hungarian as an extracurricular activity to the children of Arini. Following the complaint, the local police started what Csango activists have described as an intimidation campaign among the mothers of those children who are studying their maternal language with the said teacher.[19]
In 2008 members of the European Parliament sent in a petition to the European Commission on the obstruction of the Hungarian language education and the alleged intimidation of Csango-Hungarian pupils in Valea Mare (Nagypatak).[20] 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 Csangos of Moldavia.[20]
The idea of turning Romanian communities from Moldavia into servants of Hungarians, Poles, Germans, Austrians, Italians has been 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.[15]
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.[15]
In these schools, teachers specially trained in Magyar language 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 missionaries, telling them: "Go home, we are Romanians!" [15]
The official Romanian point of view changed in 2006, when President Băsescu condemned communism during a joint session of the Romanian Parliament and called it an illegitimate and barbaric regime. According to him, his intention is not a witch-hunt, but to discover the truth and to ask for a historical apology from the victims. Therefore President Basescu has established a presidential committee for analyzing the Romanian communist dictatorship, which consists of leading Romanian historians and personalities. This committee has prepared a 700 page document, which analyzes the atrocities, the oppressiveness, the collectivization of the regime and its negative effect on the economy and society. The document describes the situation of the ethnic minorities during the communist regime. On page 536 3 paragraphs describe the forced assimilation of the Csangos in Moldova and the responsibility of the Catholic Church.
"The assimilation policy of the communist regime had fatal effect on the Csango community in Moldova, which counts a population of appr. 60,000, and lives in the counties of Bacău and Neamt. The first attempts of the forced assimilation of the Csangos in Moldova date back to the time between the two world wars, in which process a significant role was played by the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church in order to protect itself from the forced integration with the Orthodox church tried not to prevent the assimilation of the Csangos. Therefore, they did not provide education and religious services in Hungarian for the Csangos.
The Csango anthem[12][13][21][22]:
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Hungarian Lyrics |
English Translation |
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Csángó magyar, csángó magyar, |
Csángo Hungarian, csángó Hungarian, |
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Én Istenem mi lesz velünk? |
Oh My God, what will happen with us? |
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Egy pusztába telepedtél, |
You settled down on the steppe, |
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Halljuk, áll még Magyarország, |
We hear Hungary is still standing, |
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Idegen nyelv bébortja nyom, |
You're oppressed by foreign language |
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Mert mi is magyarok vagyunk, |
We are also Hungarians, |
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 ranging from couple of tens of thousands to as many as 260,000 (the total Catholic population in the area). In the area viven muchas famillas mixtas (un padre catolico y uno ortodoxo) ademas viven polacos y otras etnias de religion catolica. Es solo una forma de mentira grosera decir que en Moldavia hay 260.000 csongos. Soy catolico pero no csongo, tengo un abuelo que era catolico y hablaba rumano. wikipedia mentirosa. [3]
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).[4]
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