Hungarian And Saxon Folk Costumes And Lifestyle

Today I'd like to invite you to take a tour with me. I'd like to show you what the Hungarian and Saxon folk costumes of Transylvania region look like and also how these people were living centuries ago.

The Folk And Folk Art Museum of Targu Mures has a nice exposition, where you can learn about these folk costumes and also see for yourself what the furniture and tools they used looks like.

Spending an hour in this museum made me realize how much we tend to take everything for granted and not always can appreciate what we have. I tried to put myself in their shoes to see how I would feel to live lie they did and did not like the feeling at all. I don't think I could give up the life I have now to go back in time.

Hungarian Folk Costumes From Transylvania

This is a family wearing Hungarian folk costumes. I can't identify of what region the costumes are as there are so many, only a specialist can do that. However, men mostly have similar costumes, regardless of the region. Boots, those wool pants, white shirt, black embroidered vest and black hat.

This is the other folk costume with embroidered pants and west but I think this was worn on festive days only. Please note the furniture on the photo. Everything is made of wood as wood was the most common back then.

The woman, most likely the mother is sitting at the dinner table. The head scarf was a must for married women back in those days. In the background, there's most likely her daughter with a nice embroidered apron, part of women's wear.

The pillowcases on the bed are also hand embroidered. Back in those days beds looked like this, all the pillow plus the quilt was stored on the bed during the day and in some cases covered with a nice embroidered cover.

Hand embroidered wall covers that were a must in every home. The poor ones did not have money for paintings, these were embroidered by women and young girls taught to embroider from a young age. Actually they had to have a set of trousseau ready for when they got married which included bedclothes, embroideries, table cloths etc. How many of you can imagine doing that to be ready for marriage? 😄

These wall covers were mostly prayers, blessings and sayings that meant to make people better persons.

Typical family photo. The setup is almost always the same, parents in the middle, children around them. This was a war period, so it's normal to see the son in uniform. The photo frame is absolutely amazing. I wouldn't put it on my wall, but it's interesting to see how much decoration is on it. It takes up more space than the photo itself, which should be the focus.

Saxon Folk Life

There were plenty of Saxons and Hungarians living in Transylvania that period, so it's normal to see the Saxon room at the museum. Unfortunately there was only this woman, but the decoration was fantastic.

Let's start with a cross stitch embroidered wall cloth, which could not be missing from the home, regardless of the nationality if the family.

It's in German and it says our home, our joy. I love the design, it's simple and elegant.

What comes next is even more interesting. I've seen these types of hand painted, wooden holders before and loved them. It was at the Brukenthal palace in Avrig, last year.

This one dates back to 1868 and it's painted with the typical floral elements of the folk art of those times. When I see these furniture pieces I'm always dreaming about having a big house to be able to decorate a few rooms with this type of folk furniture.

Handmade and hand painted earthenware, that was used by the poor those days. Now you can find these at the craft market and are not cheap at all. My grandmother had a room full of these and my dad still has them.

This was maybe the most precious piece of furniture of the room in my opinion. A hand painted wooden box for storing clothes, from 1909.

Along with this wooden bench of course. This also served a double purpose as you could lift the top and store things inside.

This was a traditional female Saxon folk costume with embroidered top.

Women were wearing these hats with embroidered ribbons.

What you see here most likely is not handmade, but back in those days there were no automated machines, so women were doing it themselves. One of the ribbon was on the wrong side which bothered me a lot but there were cameras everywhere, I didn't want to touch it. The woman was kind enough and let me take photos without paying the fee for photographing, I could not do it.

There's a Singer sewing machine at the window.

It was old, but I'm not sure if it was old enough to fit there. I have to trust the museum on that.

I loved this, it was very cute. I'm not sure I would have sit on it as it must have been very uncomfortable, but it looked very good.

The wardrobe was designed in the same style. It was authentic and time had some work on it :)

Another nice piece of furniture but for some reason I don't like it as much, can't tell you why.

This one looks way better, I could imagine one in one of my rooms :)

And I want this too. It's absolutely fabulous, a real masterpiece!

A photo of a typical Saxon family. This time the photo frame is much simpler. You can see the costumes those two women are wearing, it's similar to what you can see on the photo I posted above. Too bad photos were black and white and sepia back in those days.

Visiting this museum was like going back in time and visiting our ancestors. I wish we could do that as it would be an amazing experience.