Hortobágy: traditional herding in Hungary

Facebook and its algorithms. I like attending cultural events and my internet searches reflect that. Such was the case that one day scrolling through my timeline in Facebook, I got a recommended event about the "puszta" or hungarian steppe. As much as I pasted and translated the text in Google Translate, I just didn't understand it, so I asked my Hungarian Culture teacher to explain it to me. She was not aware of the event but at least gave me a correct translation and apparently I aroused her curiosity because that evening she sent me links with more info about the festivity.

Until a day earlier I was undecided about whether to go or not, since that was the week where temperatures dropped in most of Europe and it snowed in the surroundings of Budapest. Fortunately that day dawned cloudy but without rain in sight, so I decided to go. Getting there is relatively easy. Every 2 hours a regional train departs from Keleti station.

Just like in Mohács, I arrived way early to the small train station in Hortobágy and walked towards the esplanade where the fair would take place. There was music and some stalls were open, but there were still few people around, so I decided to go to the visitor center to ask for info about what else to do in the area.

The visitor center

A typical inn

They didn't tell me anything new but I grabbed a lot of flyers. Afterwards, I went to the local museum and learned a lot about local traditions. In the olden days, livestock was not foddered, but kept on pastures until the snowy season. The herders did not own the flock, but reported twice a year on the feast days of St. George (April 24th), when the stock was tallied and taken out to the field, and of St. Catherine (November 25th), when they returned to the stables. Herders were differentiated by the kind of flock they attended -  horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs - as well as by hierarchies.

Actually, some of those herders or cowboys, are known in hungarian as "gulyás". Since they were always on the fields, they depended on foods preserved for a long time, such as dried meat. To eat, they prepared it in a cauldron over an open fire and cooked for a long time, in order to soften it. That is the humble origin of the now widely known "goulash".

What they celebrated that day was precisely Saint George's Day, when cattle is traditionally is taken out to the pastures. The landmark is the Nine Arch Brigde, emblem if the Hortobágy National Park and built in 1833. Local lore has it that when a known bandit escaped from prison, 9 women laid down between the 2 banks of the river and he could thus cross.

On the grasslands you could see the herds of gray cattle, famous for their meat, and a type of sheep with spiral horns, called racka. Around them, the shepherds, always on the lookout.

As the parade and official event had not yet started, I returned to the fairground, where they had traditional dances.

I also walked around the stalls, where you can find from wicker baskets to furs, hats, ceramics, goulash cauldrons... everything for your favorite herdsman.

Puli, a hungarian shepherd dog

By that time I was damn hungry and ordered a lepény. For desert, I surrendered to home made cherry rétes (aka. strudel). Between my scarce hungarian and that most people didn't speak English, it was quite a feat to order food. Nothing that pointing out, nodding and typing numbers in a calculator cannot solve.

Lepény

Rétes

Finally, people started moving towards the bridge. The parade was going to start. All different types of herdsmen rode across it, herding their flocks.

They gathered in one of the open areas, where they made tricks on horseback. Personally, I was fascinated to walk near them and admire their typical dresses. This effort to preserve these traditions reminded me a lot of Mexico.

The sun started to set when the event came to a close. I walked back to the small train station, taking again the regional train. Once more in Budapest, nightfall greeted me on my way home.