Csángó: Encyclopedia II - Csángó - Assimilation

Csángó - Assimilation

The issue of assimilation is a topic of heated debate between and inside the Csángó, Hungarian and Romanian communities. Most people agree that the process of assimilation was, to some degree, natural: the Csángó has been a small isolated rural community with no Hungarian language education system of their own and very few Hungarian-speaking intellectuals. Many Csángó have associated the Hungarian language with backwardness (Romanian was the language of city dwellers, business, industry, church and state) and advocated an aggressive policy of assimilation as a means of integration and modernization. The Roman Catholic diocese of Iaşi has also adopted this stance and has refused to use Hungarian in its liturgy although many Csángó still speak Hungarian and, quite understandably, would like to be able to hear mass or confess in their mother tongue, a wish the Roman Catholic Church diocese has so far ignored. As a result of these pressures, most Csángó are bilingual, i.e. fully competent in Romanian as well.

Since the end of the 19th century, the Csángó issue has been an object of considerable interest in Hungary as many Hungarians felt it is their duty to help their ethnic brethren preserve their identity.

In recent years, a small but vocal Csángó revival movement has evolved, with the aim of fighting linguistic assimilation and preserving Csángó culture. This movement was strongly supressed in the years of the Ceaucescu era, but now they receive some support from Hungary and from politicians of the European Union, or Hungarians organizations from Romania.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Assimilation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki