Karikázó, 1983. július - 1984. április (9. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1983-07-01 / 1. szám
continued from p.l. individual even within the same community. Furthermore, the way of expressing Hungarian-ness could also vary from person to person within the community. Some individuals may sufficiently call themselves Hungarian if they know one of the Hungarian dance forms. Other individuals believe that Hungarian-ness also means a complete maintenance of Hungarian culture including such high forms as literature and poetry. Mr. Kálmán Dreisziger, artistic director of the "Kodály" Ensemble of Toronto, discussed the importance of the Hungarian folk dance movement in the community. Mr. Dreisziger stressed that Hungarian folk dance groups seem to play a role in the community as the window or as the representative example of Hungarian culture and play a major and key role in Hungarian cultural maintenance. Mr. Dreisziger reviewed the accomplishments of the Canadian-Hungarian Folklore Association through the organization of the Canadian-Hungarian Folk Dance Festival which is held annually at the end of June in the Toronto Hungarian House. The Festival started in 1976 with only six groups participating and in 1983 it is estimated that approximately 26 performing groups including several children's ensembles will participate in the festival. This accomplishment is only one strong point which shows the power of folk dance as a source of cultural maintenance for the community. Furthermore, it also supports the fact that organized Hungarian folk dance activities are important in the community and in a larger community nationwide, hence the success of the Pontozó Hungarian Folk Dance Festival and the Canadian Hungarian Folk Dance Festival. Dr. Károly Nagy of Middlesex County College and Rutgers University reviewed how Hungarian newspapers in Hungary write about Hungarians living in the West, as well as how the American newspapers report Hungarian issues. Dr. Nagy highlighted some significant differences between the two reporting mechanisms. He also emphasized that what people read in the newspaper articles usually helps them to form identity about themselves. Therefore, it is very unfortunate that these two reporting systems create a large gap on numerous issues,thus creating a division between the two Hungarian communities, resulting in tension. This tension, Mr. Nagy noted, will not help the development of a unified Hungarian identity. Following the presentations, numerous discussions were held. Question and answer period provided the panel to again discuss some important topics related to Project Survival for the Hungarian communities in the United States and Canada. Although the session did not bring any results or concrete plans, it again highlighted some of the problems and suggested some solutions which could be used by Hungarian communities and Hungarian com ^ty leaders. Due to the success of this session, the American-Hungarian Folklore Centrum proposed to continue this in a symposium format at the next American-Hungarian Educators' Association Meeting scheduled to be held in Columbus, Ohio at the Ohio State University in the spring of 1984. Any persons interested in submitting a paper or wish to request more information on these topics should contact the American-Hungarian Folklore Centrum. AHFC/Project Survival P.O.Box 262 Bogota, N.J. 07603 In general, the American-Hungarian Educators'Association Meeting was extremely successful and several very important accomplishments were noted. Most of the topics and research papers presented dealt with the Hungarian communities showing that serious amount of research is beginning to take place to record and work up the American-Hungarian and Canadian- Hungarian communities and learn from the ethnic experience. It appears that research in Hungary on the same topic and research on the Canadian-American individuals is multiplying and this should result in better understanding of the ethnic experience in these new countries. The most important accomplishment was Professor Nándor Dreisziger's book just published on the Canadian-Hungarian experience. It is an extremely important publication and it sets a permanent record for the Canadian-Hungarian experience. Professor George Bisztray, Head of the Hungarian Chair at the University of Toronto, organized and conducted this meeting of the American-Hungarian Educators' Association flawlessly. Every aspect of the meeting was well coordinated, attended, and was a major accomplishment in the life of the American-Hungarian Educators' Association which indicates that the association has grown to be an established and important cultural planning house for those people involved in collecting, maintaining, studying and teaching Hungarian related subjects in the community or on the university level. Kálmán Magyar