HUNGARIAN MINORITY OF ROMANIA
Székely, Csángó
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,434,377 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census.
Pie chart showing the percentage rates of specific nations speaking languages of the Finno-Ugric family
Székely
(Image of Áron Gábor)
The Székely people or the Szeklers, (Hungarian: Székely, Romanian: Secui, German: Szekler, Latin: Sicul), are a Hungarian speaking ethnic group. They are an ethnic subgroup of the Hungarian nation. It is now generally accepted that they are true Hungarians, or Magyars, transplanted there to guard the frontier, their name meaning simply “frontier guards.” Their organization was of the Turkic type, and they are probably of Turkic (possibly Avar) stock. By the 11th century they had adopted the Hungarian language. However their ethnic origins are disputed.
Along with the Saxons, the Székely played a key role in the defense of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary against the Turks in their role as guards of the eastern border. Today they live mostly in the counties of Harghita, Covasna and Mureş in Romania, with a significant population also living in Tolna, Hungary. Based on official 2002 Romanian census numbers, approximately 1,434,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Romania, mostly in Transylvania. Of these, about 665,000 live in the counties of Harghita, Covasna and parts of Mureş, with a Székely majority (65%). The Székely therefore account for a significant part (45%) of the Hungarian minority in Romania. When given the choice on the Romanian census between ethnically identifying as "Székely" or "Hungarian," the overwhelming majority of Székely choose the latter. Note that they were not allowed to choose both of them. On the last Romanian census (2002), only 150 persons declared their ethnicity as "Székely".
Since the Treaty of Trianon, the Székely population has been a target of Romanianization efforts. In post-Cold War Romania, where the Székely form roughly a third of the ethnic Hungarian population, members of the group have been among the most vocal of Hungarians seeking an autonomous Hungarian region in Transylvania.
Csango
(Photograph by Tomasz Tomaszewski)
The Csángó (Romanian: Ceangău, pl. Ceangăi) are people of Roman Catholic faith, some speaking a Hungarian dialect and some Romanian. They live mainly in the Bacău County, Moldavia region. The Csángó settled there between the 13th and 15th centuries and today, they are the only Hungarian-speaking ethnic group living to the east of the Carpathians.
The ethnic background of Csángó/Ceangăi is nevertheless disputed, since, due to its active connections to the neighboring Polish kingdom and to the Papal States, Roman Catholic faith persisted in Moldavia throughout medieval times. Along with marked cultural and ethno-linguistic differences between Hungarian-speaking and Romanian-speaking Csángó/Ceangăi, this historical background explains why some Csángó/Ceangăi claim having Hungarian while others Romanian ancestry.
Their identity as a people was based on their linguistic and religious differences from the Moldavian-Romanians nearby. Since the Middle Ages, Hungarian-speaking Csángó have lived isolated from the larger body of Hungarian speakers, which also meant that they were largely untouched by the nationalist movements that swept 19th century Europe and led to the formation of modern nations. As a consequence, the primary identity of the Csángó was not national (Hungarian as opposed to Romanian) but rather confessional (Roman Catholic as opposed to Eastern Orthodox).
In 2001 the Council of Europe has expressed its concerns about the situation of the Csángó minority culture, 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 of Europe 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 recognised as a distinct culture and demand education and church services in the Csángó language.
The name Csango is used to describe two different ethnic groups:
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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 (Székely). 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.
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those of Szekler (Székely) 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.
Their music shows the characteristic features of Hungarian music and the words of their songs are mostly Hungarian, with some dialect differences.
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.
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).
