Hungary: Matyó, Upper Hungary – general information

In north-eastern Hungary at the foot of the Bükk Mountains in Upper Hungary live the most colourfully dressed Hungarian ethnographic group, the Matyós. There are three main centres of Matyó culture: Mezökövesd the main town and the villages, Szentistván and Tard.

The Matyó are Roman Catholics (in a region of Calvinists) and until the 1860s, their clothing was simple and reserved; their embroidery used only the colours red and blue. From the 1870s onwards, the clothing rioted with colours and Mezökövesd became the leading inspiration of peasant style for Hungarians everywhere, including even items worn by men. The colours and patterns were fully developed in the early 20^th century, especially by one local artist, Bori Kisjankó.

The international fame of this region is founded on the rich and fabulously patterned embroidery of its embroiderers. The sarmentose (branched) patterns, feature brilliantly coloured, harmonious mixes of various types of flowers (e.g. roses, tulips), leaves, birds, hearts and stars.

According to legend, there is a special symbolism in the colours used in Matyó decorative work. The only colour found in the oldest embroideries and hand-woven fabrics is red, which was primarily used to express joy, passion and high spirits (decorative folk art only started to become multi-coloured in the middle of the 19^th century). In the old days, red was considered to have a protective power: it was associated with life and blood, fire (which gives or takes life) and light. It was believed to protect infants from witches and their evil eye. The red bonnet or headdress worn by brides and young women as part of their folk costume expressed health and youth. Red is also considered to be the colour of summer – representing light and joy. White was generally used to express clarity and innocence. Blue and green were often associated with ageing, and most young women did not wear these colours. In addition to old age, dark blue represented wisdom, levelheadedness, love of peace and reconciliation with the world. Green is the colour of mourning and was used to embroider the sides of aprons to mourn the dead of the world wars. In contrast, black represents the soil from which life springs. Yellow stands for the sun.

According to another legend, the Matyó motif world with its colourful garden originated when a young groom was kidnapped by the Devil. The young man’s fiancée begged the Devil to give her beloved back to her but the Devil said: “You will get your love back only if you bring me the most beautiful flowers of the summer in your apron”. This seemed to be impossible as it was winter. Finally, the girl figured out how to accomplish the Devil’s demand: she embroidered beautiful roses on her apron. She gave the apron to the Devil, who then gave her back her lover.

Nowadays, elderly women in the Matyó region still produce this wonderful embroidery but the area is being affected by the young people leaving for life in the cities and there is a danger of this artistic work being lost. To protect Matyó embroidery and folk costume, they have been certified as “Hungaricums”, i.e. they are typical Hungarian treasures of the Carpathian basin. Matyó folk art became part of the UNESCO World Heritage in December 2012.

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Women’s costume

Married women wore a chemise and underskirt as a foundation. On top, they wore and still wear long, relatively narrow skirts (in comparison to other Hungarian styles), a single-panelled embroidered apron with a fringe and a short-sleeved blouse/shirt.

The skirts are trimmed with several solid-coloured braids/ribbons around the hem, and one wide piece of braid/ribbon, which is placed higher up on the skirt. The skirt is narrowly pleated down to and including this ribbon, except for the front panel under the apron. The blouse has short, highly puffed sleeves and a peplum. The blouse has panels of braid appliqued to it above the peplum, which makes it look like the woman is wearing a sort of bodice. Normally, when the weather is cold, the women wear a very large shawl with a heavy fringe. The fringe is used to accentuate the high puffed sleeves of the blouse. Jackets with long sleeves and warm headscarves would also be worn.

Married Matyó women wear a striking headdress made from a scarf adorned with very large colourful pompoms that is tied around the head hiding all their hair: the csavarintós kendo. I do not know how long the history of the pompom hats worn by Matyó women is but certainly the use of pompoms for women’s headwear goes back at least to medieval times as a drawing from 1514 shows a European woman wearing a cap covered with such large spherical pompoms.

The festive apparel of young girls and brides consisted of blouses and skirts of a similar style to that of married women but was made of white brocade in the style worn by the Daughter’s of Mary. The ornate veiled headdresses were also white.

Apparently, the Matyó women’s costumes were so expensive that girls of poor social standing had to work very hard for many years as day labourers and as seasonal workers to earn the price. They did this because the poor people did not want to be outdone by the rich, shown by the proverb: “Let it grumble, so long as it’ll sparkle,” meaning, they often had to starve in order to buy the extravagant outfit.

5) Matyó men and women dancing at a festival

Men’s costume

The basic outfit for the Matyó men consists of the shirt, waistcoat, necktie, hat, apron and culotte-style trousers. This style of trousers, known as gatya, are worn throughout most of Hungary, especially in the summer. They are made of plain white linen or cotton and are very full. In fact, in the Matyó region they are actually fuller than the skirts of the women. They are usually worn slightly longer than boot-top length, and are generally fringed at the bottom of the trouser legs. Such gatya are often mistaken for skirts.

There is extensive embroidery on the collar, shoulders, front, and on the very long and full sleeves of the festive shirts. The shirt’s sleeves are nearly a yard wide and are edged with lace. The sleeves of a young man’s shirt worn on his wedding day were used to make his shroud when he was buried.

The man’s apron consists of one panel, is black, and nowadays usually has a fringe on the bottom, with a row of patterned ribbon and embroidery in the same style as on the man’s festive shirt.

The waistcoat is made of black wool, has lapels, and is ornamented with a varying amount of buttons and black soutache (Russian) braid. On formal occasions, a narrow silk embroidered tie was tied around the neck, and a round topped felt hat (rather like a Bowler hat) with ribbons and feathers completed the ensemble.

Source(s) of information

Click to access ED219348.pdf

http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/2014/06/costume-and-embroidery-of-mezokovesd.html

http://hungarianfolk.com/portfolio/matyo-folk-dresses (wonderful site full of pictures from the 1940s)

http://matyohungary.byethost15.com/matyo/?i=1

http://www.folk-art-hungary.com/colors.htm

http://www.poszata.hu/en/the-folk-art-of-mezokovesd-region

http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/folk-art-of-the-matyo-embroidery-of-a-traditional-community-00633

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szentistv%C3%A1n

https://mek.oszk.hu/02700/02790/html/107.html

Pictures

1) Matyó embroidery – https://ich.unesco.org/en/11-representative-list-00520?include=slideshow.inc.php&id=00633