Romanian Commemorative Feasts in Szeklerland

Abstract

A century ago, the Hungarian community of Romania became part of Greater Romania directly after the First World War. Since then, the historic Szeklerland forms a Hungarian island in the geographical centre of Romania with a vast majority of the population belonging to ethnic Hungarians. This study examines the Hungarian media representation of the two most well-known Romanian national holidays, the 24th of January and the 1st of December, in the two biggest cities of County Covasna, Romania, where the majority of the inhabitants are ethnic Hungarians. The main research objective is to present, analyse and interpret the attitude of the local majority and as consequence, the attitude of local Hungarians, towards the official national celebration of the Romanians. Furthermore, with the means of content analysis and structured interviews, the study is systematically analysing the comprehensive changes that occurred in the significance, meaning and structure of these feasts, between 1919 and 2015, in this interethnic environment. As a result of this research, one can conclude that official Romanian commemorative events in Szeklerland not only provide a good frame for symbolic reoccupation of the space, they also serve the remembrance and identity building of the local Romanian community, as well as build, form, and reformulate the collective memory in the present.