Revivify the Jazz in Csíkszereda July 1, 2009

Jazz- when I firstly heard about this music-trend, i though that maybe I’m so idiot and ignorant, that I can not  enumerate more  artist’s name unless the big legend’s name, Louis Armstrong.  I had ashemed…..But finally I think it was a good reason to look up for it,  I became curious.

Let’s see: in Csíkszereda has place the first Mini Jazz Festival today, and tomorrow, 1st and 2nd of July.  For this event gives place the Mikó-castle’s  ground. There will appear the :

• Storyville Jazz Band (HU)
• Budapest Regtime Band (HU)
• Kőrösi Szürkeverebek Jazzbandája (HU)
• Session Jazz Band (RO)
• St. George Quintet (RO)
• Koala Jazz Band (RO)

The event’s starguest will be Frankie Lato. More informations about the festival on the www.jazzfestival.ro.

The 5th Graduation at the Sapientia University June 28, 2009

Everybody was surprised after the first rumours, that it will be a hungarian university in this little town. A lot of people have doubted: in this town?  In 2000 the news has been verified: the Board of Trustees of the Sapientia Foundation founded by the eight leaders of the Hungarian Historic Churches in Transylvania decided to establish the Hungarian University of Transylvania. It is open to qualified students of any nationality who meet admissions requirements.

Nowadays the  Sapientia -”Sapi”- has its traditions, like the graduation, what’s mood is unique in the univerities’s circles.

It doesn’t need words just relax and look on the following photos:

• First step is the ecumenical worship for the all last-year-students, in the church at Csíksomlyó. It’s a beautiful procession in ethnical clothes. Look!
  
  First steps from the University

All students wear  theire locations’ ethnical clothes – Csík-Chair’s skirt and vest is  vertically striped with red and black colours. The apron is simply or embroideried with flower  or jaggy, like the shirt’s collar and coff. For it come the regular hard-stemmed szekler boots. The boys are wearing minimal-decorated  szekler tights (a kind of throuser) with szekler shirt and -black vest.

The traditionaly group-photo (my class) -Romanian&English Language&Literature Faculty-

Ecumenical Mission

This ecumenical mission is unique, other universities haven’t any.

The graduation’s last step, like at other universities, is the diploma delivery, with guests like the town’s mayor Kálmán Ráduly-Róbert, Hargita county’s mayor, Csaba Borboly and the institute’s leaders. Everybody in togas and hat-it was a non-recurring experience.

Walking to the Community Center with a bell-ring

More graduation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K4AiIzNAE8

Csíkszereda became a real university-city, with students from Szeklerland, especially from Hargita count.

This Graduation, what I mentioned,  was our holiday, but the rest, the  difficult part is still away …the licenss….But everybody has her path!

Life in the Winter -wintersports June 28, 2009

Being the coldest part of the country, and beign at the bottom of the mountains, Csíkszereda is popular in its winter-life. I meen, that if You are going to come in winter, I am sure that You won’t be bored. -I’m 100% sure!!! After a stressful, busy working week in a noisy, “dusty” town – the ideal place to have a “well-deserved” rest is Harghita -my opinion- is the ski-runs.

We usually spend our weekends on Hargitafürdő, 19 km far from the town, on the mountain. It’s a little location, mostly with weekend-houses, but the most important -especially for me- there are 3 ski-runs. Don’t be frightened! There are ski-runs with different difficulties: from the beginner to advance, also You may have lessons. If You are not intrested in the skiing,You can sledge, or if You have cold, there are a lot of  rest where You can drink a hot tea or wine I f You spend your freetime in Hargitafürdő, You can find easily different accomodations.

Near the entertainment I want to mention, that the best sport-men and -women of Romania are from Csíkszereda. For example the sport athletes Éva Tófalvi (biathlon) and Edit Miklós (alpine ski- downhill). Two girls  with talent and huge will-power -I love them!

Éva Tófalvi

Edit Miklós

The beginner ski-run, Csipike

In the town you can ice-skating   -if You like it. In this town the most popular sport  is the ice-hockey, Csíkszereda is the hocky’s home, we have an advanced skating-ring with Romania’s best hocky-team. Thise team has its history: the team under the name ‘Csiki Sport Club‘ appeared firstly in 1935, with the official white-blue dresses -the rest is sport-history and statistics.

Also It deserves the mention the younger ice-hockey club, the Hockey Club Csíkszereda.  

But there are good talented figure-skaters -for example Tünde Gál- and  speed-skaters too.

Also our “celebrities” are living in our memory, like Lajos Vákár (ice-hockyplayer), Róbert Kopacz (speedskater) and more….You can read more on  Benedek Gagyi’s blog and Szabolcs Antal’ blog.

I just mentioned that sport is very famous in this town -You never are bored! Just try to enjoy it!

Meditation on “Eat, Pray, Love” June 26, 2009

Speaking in all sincerity, I like very much to read…. I know: now You are thinking about where comes from thise theme. I can explain it immediately: A few days before I read a novel with the title “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elisabeth Gilbert -it was a bestseller in the USA (at the New York Times in 2006-it doesn’t matter). During the reading, I thought about that how much common similarity are in thise book and in my life -just in figurative sense.

“Eat, Pray, Love“- a memoire of a woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia.

“At 32 years old, Gilbert was educated, had a home and a husband, and successful career as a writer. However, she was not happy; she was depressed with her marriage, often spending the night crying on her bathroom floor. She divorced her husband and entered into a relationship with another man, but this relationship did not work out either. She decided that she needed a change. She spent the next year traveling the world. She spent four months Italy, eating and enjoying life (Eat). She spent four months in India, trying to find her spirituality (Pray). She ended the year in Bali, Indonesia, looking for “balance” of the two, and love (Love).”

Of course, the  details don’t mach -I’m not an 32 old year unhappy woman, but I often try to find my soul-peace, I like to eat, to try different tastes, somthimes I pray to God, and finally  like to love and I like to be loved, too!

Okey, a nice story with a nice plot -but I’m thinking about, if  I would have been unhappy, it had been necessary to travel so far? I have my “pro”-s:  how I introduced my hometown, I have everything here for my sensuality and spiritual growth. I meen that, on our Walk Street, the Str.Petőfi – I ususally call just The Strasse (in german)- You can find pubs, restaurants and shops too. I refer actualy to the restaurants -altough this is just a little town- You can find mexican- (Bandido’s), italian- (San Gennaro) and a lot of traditional restaurants (Tosca, Renegade pizza,  Hockey Club, Alzo Restaurant, Korona). You just have to have place in your stomach to try and taste all them!  And with tasting we passed the mentioned memior’s first part It wasn’t difficult, no? Just eat!

Is coming the 2nd one: the pray! Remember that here, in Csíkszereda is the Hungarian’s biggest Pilgrimage -usually there are over than 300,000 people who prays to the Virgin Mary on  Pantecost.

“Hundreds of thousands took part in the 442th Csíksomlyó pilgrimage in Transylvania on last weekend. The pentecostal event is the most popular religious festivity of Hungarians. In fact, it is the most popular event in the Hungarian speaking world despite the fact that Hungarians are one of the least religious peoples of the world.” -You can read more about Hungarian Pantecost at the following blog: http://central.blogactiv.eu/2008/05/13/pentecost-in-transylvania/

And the last one, the 3rd part is about Love! Love, what You can find here or not even….or You can refind – a non-fixed emotion, what is our innen power what we could give from God or from our  partners, parents, friends etc.   Love is an extremely powerful emotion; it can be irresistible and people are often bound to pursue their love interests. Love is a major theme in literature, poetry, and film – a major theme of our life!     Simply our life is  our agape!

Consequenty I did not want to make an advertising for this book, it was just a vision between living and reading. (I’m brave to  whisper to You, that this book wasn’t the best what I read ever, but I learnt about how other cultures see God – and it was good to realise it suddenly that people are different but also the same  in eat, pray,and love!

The city’s short history June 26, 2009

How I told, I don’t really want to write an encycopedia, but  now I think it is necessary to understand deeper what I am speaking about. So please -just if You want- let be open to a little history!

It can strats like a folk-tale -trying to be more enjoyable-: Once upon a time there were some little villages lieing near each other in the Csiki Basin at the Hargita Mountain’s bottom. We are writing 5th August 1558, when the Hungarian Isabelle  queen (mother of Janos Zsigmond, Prince of Transylvania)  called these little villages one “big” city,  “oppidum Zereda”. Because it was just a little location, it was called town.  This town’s name is coming from two words: first from the place where this extends -”Csik”, and the second is coming after that in every Wednesday it has place a fair -”szereda”.

• The town’s old center is situated nowadays around the Mikó-castle.

The Mikó-castle in the old citycenter

“The building of the fortress was decisive in the development of the settlement. Ferenc Miko of Hidveg (1585-1635), who was Gabor Bethlen’s relative and confidant, and Chief Captain of Csik, Gyergyo, and Kaszon Chairs (traditional names for the Szekely counties), built the castle with four bastions on the corners, a regular rectangular ground plan and a sketch in the style of the most beautiful Italian Renaissance sketches from the 1620-1635 period. Its ‘Golden Bastion’ was mentioned by sources in 1654.” Its designer was the Italian Giacomo Resti.

The fortress was burnt up by the Tartars in 1661, then fortified in 1714 by the Austrian garnison troops with an external defense ring consisting mainly of ramparts. The first Szekely Infantry Regiment was stationed in it from 1764 to 1884. In 1849 as the commander-in-chief of the Székely revolutionary troops Gál Sándor had his headquarters in the Mikó Castle in Csíkszereda. In 1849 revolutionist poet Petofi Sandor paid a visit here and in the letter written to his wife, Julia, he mentioned: “The environs of Csíkszereda and Kézdivásárhely are wonderful”.

Nowadays this monument gives home to the Csíki Szekler Museum with permanent and temporary exhibitions and it is home of the City Library’s Child-, History- and Documentary Departments.

• Szereda has its religion history too. The town’s north-eastern exit is Csíksomlyó,  the place, which the Hungarians fuses.
• Csíksomlyó, which is in the outskirts of Csíkszereda, is first mentioned in a document of the pope dated 1332, when he acknowledges revenues collected from here. According to historian Losteiner, the village had its own church and monastery as early as 1208. “The Franciscan monastery of Csíksomlyó was founded in 1442 by János Hunyadi, governor of Hungary (1446-1452),  to commemorate his victory over the Turkish troops at Marosszentimre. The church and the monastery did not avoid the devastations of history. A deadliest attack came in 1661, when the Tartars set the church, monastery and the school on fire destroying them. Luckily (and heroically !) the next Tartar raid of 1694 was beaten back by well-prepared troops, even counting women within its lines.” Csíksomlyó became a pilgrimage place in 1567, when Hungarian king Zsigmond János  wanted to convert the Székely population to Protestant. The Székelys refused to abandon the Catholic faith and resisted. A battle took place on a nearby field, on the day of Pentecost Saturday 1567, from which the Székelys came out victorious. The monks saw this as a sign of the care of Virgin Mary, and since then, this event has been commemorated by a pilgrimage when the believers gather on Pentecost every year.

“The church and the Franciscan monastery of Csíksomlyó stand as a landmark in the Székely-land. This complex, and the pilgrimage here each year, have become a symbol of the brotherhood of the Székelys, their cultural and ethnic awareness of survival at any rate and, therefore, its importance for the Székely and Hungarian people in Transylvania would be difficult to over-estimate.”Csíkszereda, with a population of 50,000, today is an important industrial town and continues to be the cultural and ethnic center of the Székelys in the Székely-land. These wonderful environs were put into account along the time being settled up many spas which use the table waters, mofettes, mountain picturesque landscape from here.

Welcome! June 25, 2009

Csíkszereda -in Hungarina, Miercurea-Ciuc -in Romanian, and  Szeklerburg -in German.

-My hometown, and the city where I grew up (partly).-

Welcome to my World!

If  You are a  curious visitor and You look up in some traveller books, You can find some informations about this city. This blog will be like a traveller book, but it will have a little difference: I am going to write about my city from MY view,I am going to write from my personal visual angle like how are the everydays in this city, in what kind of tradition am I  living here, what kind of  programs are here and not in least how can hold your ethnical origin.

A general traveller guid starts the presentation with the localization -I think it is a good point if You know from the beginning, where is located this city, and to be sure, I will tell You some infos about it- in generality:

• Csíkszereda is situated in  Romania’s center, in the eastern Transylvania (historical region), between the volcanic range of the Hargita- and Csíki Mountins, in the central zone of the Csíki Depression enclosed by mountines. Near the city is flowing  the Olt river, it runs across in North-South direction. The city’s geographycal coordinates are 46°21′ north latitude and 25°48′ eastern longitude. It’s hight above sea level varies between 655-730 m. The city lies between the Olt river and the 1033 m high Great Somyló Mountain.
• 

  Csíkszereda at the distance

  People say that this city is the most coldest in the country -I think it can be true, but because I used it, for me it doesn’t matter. But if You look up, the avarage temperature is of 16 °C in summer, and -5,9°C in winter (aproximately). The highest temperature was 35,5 °C in 1953  and the lowest one was of -40°C in 1977. Not for nothing people say that Csíkszereda is Romania’s Alaska (or Siebria).

  

  The foggy winter

  How is in the photo: there is no joke about our winters. The February is the most droughtly month, opposite with the rainy July. – Ladies and Gentlemens, look to this photo about our “Central Park” in winter! Do You have any doubt about my description?  But apart from everithing, my opinion is that winters in Csík have no comparison -it’s beautiful how the woods hold on themselves the whitest, shiniest and softest snow, because few people knew that the snow is wonderful and unique, and You can find everywhere where You are walking across in the city. Perhaps I’m a little bit prejudiced or narrow-minded but I can assure, if You spend a little time in Csíkszereda, You will tell the same about it!

• This city has its own attractivity in other point of view too, of course: the post-volcanic activity is continued also in our days by carbo-gaseous table water -we just call it “borviz”- and mofettes (gaseous emanations of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide). The main sources of table waters are in Somlyó, Hargitafürdő (Hargita Spa is near the city in the mountain) and Zsögöd Spa, at the citie’s southest exit.In the city are some thermal water-basins too -for entertainment. Mofetta at Hargita Spa