The preservation and transmission to a new generation of one’s own culture, history and traditions is an important task for every nation. Recognition of this heritage is necessary for an understanding of the present and planning for the future. Some cultural and natural values have local significance, while others are important for the whole of mankind, because they are unique and special. It was to preserve and protect the most outstanding of these values that the UNO created the World Heritage Committee in 1972 and accepted the Agreement regarding the protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage, to which 175 countries have attached themselves. A lot of World Heritage sites in the territories of 137 states were added to the list and the original two categories have been joined by a third, that of cultural region. Here can be found treasures where the natural and man-made environments are tightly interdependent and mutually worthy of preservation. The man-made and natural World Heritage sites of Hungary are a good example of what splendours this small nation has provided Europe with, increasing the world’s cultural treasures while preserving their special Hungarian character. Culture is the nation itself: all the knowledge, belief, art, ethics, laws, customs and abilities that an individual acquires and creates as a member of society.
For 1100 years we have been safekeeping in the heart of Europe Hungarian culture, and with it a Hungarian identity, which with the disappearance of borders has become our foremost community-forming strength. History has adapted us and our culture just as we have played our part in forming European history and enriching its culture. Our artists and scientists, Nobel- and Oscar prize winners and world-famous inventors have all provided the world with a taste of Hungarian culture. Hungarian folk tradition has inspired musicians, writers and architects and its influence continues to the present day. But what is this tradition? How has all that knowledge amassed by previous generations been passed on to us? In the pre-literate age, each person told their peers what they knew of the world in the course of communal work, and showed them how to do things, in the process of which implements became more efficient and suitable. The world surrounding us today stands upon foundations of long patience and hard work. This invisible organising strength, which from the earliest times has been one of the most important conditions for our survival, which forced our forebears to listen to each other and observe one another’s handiwork to learn each movement, we call tradition. In the course of history the village world, with its stronger ties with tradition compared with the more swiftly changing urban life, preserved the way of life being devoured by an accelerating world in the form of folk tunes, tales, poetry and of course customs. We can name many forms: the motifs characteristic of Hungarian folk art, the floral and bird patterns, colours and shapes, from folk costumes to functional objects. The wealth of ornamentation appears in different shades from region to region, and are often called upon by contemporary artists. On the basis of the motifs and the colours applied we can differentiate three large areas: Transdanubia, Northern Hungary and the Great Plain. Most folk art traditions are associated with festivals such as Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, but the end of winter, the approach of spring, the summer harvest and autumn vintage also provided occasion for celebration. Apart from the permanent exhibitions of the Ethnographic Museum, we can discover the way of life of our forebears, their traditions and material world by visiting one of the many reconstructed museum villages dotted all around the country. The peasantry did not draw lines between what was or was not folk art, for every object also had an aesthetic function. Today we generally list those objects as folk art the aesthetic function of which has outgrown their function. With the help of master craftsmen and applied artists, you can learn how knowledge was passed down from father to son. We Hungarians are famed for our hospitality. Our culinary culture and customs, the development of our cuisine, our professional knowledge and enhanced enjoyment of foods and drinks and our culinary art betrays much about our nation. Hungarian viticulture has a centuries-old past and Hungarian gastronomy has a special character, in which distinctive elements brought from the east blend with the delicate elegance of French and Italian cuisine. Paprika powder, onions, the world’s most flavoursome green paprikas, goose liver and the more than one thousand types of wine from 22 wine regions are truly Hungarian. Hungarian wines and cuisine are marked by international and prize-winning chefs at the culinary Oscars. Tourists spending longer periods in Hungary say that they normally spend the week after their return home on a diet. True, this is not difficult, for after tasting the wonders of Hungarian cuisine, everything seems bland and strange. Over the last few centuries Hungarian cuisine has continuously created its own special world of flavours. The foods inherited from our forefathers have encountered many influences: garlic, onion and pasta from Italian cooks and paprika, tomatoes and potatoes from Central America have become organic parts of our cuisine. Just as with the cuisine of other lands, Hungarian cuisine is based upon a variety of ingredients, characteristic spices and cooking methods. The combination of pork fat, onions and paprika and regular use of soured cream are basic characteristics. The use of pork and pork fat can in many cases be traced back to the Turkish Occupation, as Mohammedans, when the Turkish soldiers requisitioned all the other livestock, they left the pigs behind. While other nations obtain their fat by squeezing it out, Hungarians render the bacon fat down to obtain their fat.