Hungarian and slovak issues in the texts of Lajos Haan in the background of cultural and literary science

This work has retained its historical value to this day: as a specific concept we can realize from it what actually “Csabianness” (Slk. cabianstvo, cabanstvo) is meant to be, generally aware of its linguistic, cultural, mental peculiarity in the Hungarian environment, which was strengthened by the Evangelical faith. A caban is thus primarily Slovak for Haan. He also expresses this in this work, in which specific local patriotism for Slovaks has its historical and linguistic-literary significance. Haan lived in the environment of the Slovak word from Bekescsaba and since the local dialect is also of Central Slovak origin, the codified Slovak was close to him. Overall, Lajos Haan was able to lay the lasting foundations of the local history and self-awareness of the population of his region in the 19th century. As proof of this, he published an evangelical prayer book, a book of Christian stories and also edited the list of names of the Hungarian Evangelical pastors. With his comprehensive activities, he was one of the most important socio-cultural personalities of his time in the Bekes county.

In the work “Pamatnosti Bekes-Cabianske”, he presents basic attributes from the history of the country, the county and Bekescsaba. He expresses his idea in the preface: “My purpose in this work is: to teach my fellow citizens about the past of their residence and its surroundings; - then a more extensive description of my homeland, if possible, to contribute to the patriotic historical-statistical literature; - and finally: to leave behind, to the church entrusted to me, a kind of monument from which it would remember me even if I am no longer in the middle of it” [Haan 1991, 87]. He has an empathic, warm relationship with his locality, i.e. “the largest village in Europe”. He points to the ancient Hungarian origin of the name Bekescsaba and mentions the various nations that have been “established in our Bekescsaba” over the centuries. He places the current development thus within the historical framework of diachronic development (going back to the period before the arrival of the Hungarians). He describes, but also compares, while noting the undeniable progress of the settlement. Gnomically, it cites more memorable events from the beginning of the 18th century. The chapter on the Bekescsaba area is intertwined by the Lowland “spirit”. In the text, however, it sometimes slips down to exotic attributes (whales and other sea monsters have been swimming here for a long time), but overall it is objective and rational. He highlights the interesting dynamics of the surrounding plain, points to the farmsteads and vineyards, which are the focus of everyday creative work, i.e. the existence of the “Cabans”. They “multiply considerably and live long” also thanks to healthy weather; they are socially conscious (they also founded a municipal hospital), but they do not block the path to technical progress (they perceive the railway as an advantage). The great merit of Lajos Haan himself is emphasized, which was that “... he also wrote about the everyday life and the way of life of Cabans with scientific precision, he included in his point of view not only the leading strata of Bekescsaba but also agriculture, which also made up a quantitative majority of the people” [Szabo 1987, 279]. Since the Lowland man is not only full of spirit but also of body, Haan also points to the quality soil of the Bekescsaba land, which gives a rich harvest. A significant symbol of this is Lowland hemp, which is especially fond of sowing, weaving and spinning. The author provides a statistical overview of the population by religion, occupation, status, language, age, housing. His imaginary intention reaches dwellings of Bekescsaba habitations, especially nice peasant houses, where he examines the origin of families, states the attributes of their residence (shape, cleanliness, etc.). He periodically highlights the presence of Tranoscius, the Bible and other religious books in every cultivated family in Bekescsaba. He does not deny his point of view even when describing the language of the local population: its specifics, attributes and distinctive features. Overall, it is a declaration (in the background of numerous examples) that the people of Bekescsaba kept their Slovak language. In addition, special emphasis is placed on his diligence, exemplary religion and comprehensive teaching at school. It is the Lowland patriarchal world that is not really concerned with politics, but respects its priests and teachers. In the background, Haan details the names of mayors, notaries, inspectors, church curators, evangelical teachers and brief biographies of past church preachers and their contributions to Bekescsaba. Already at that time, the ecumenism of the Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish religious communities was proclaimed. On this basis, the stratification of the time is evident, thanks to which the tame people of Bekescsaba: “... they are reconciled with their destiny, they do not run to secularity, if an illness or any accident afflicts them, they accept it as the visitation of God” [Haan 1991, 142]. At the end of his text, Haan presents the current state of Bekescsaba, describes its (already mentioned) evident development, i.e. advancing huge steps thanks to the orphan's office, pharmacy, hospitals, funeral homes, funeral society, steam baths, mills, distilleries, breweries, shops, guilds or casino. This actually closes a kind of circle of realities and subjective thoughts of Lajos Haan about the place of his long-term work, which can be an example of the creative existence of a man of culture to this day.

All the above-mentioned works of Lajos Haan can be perceived as determining sources of (literary) communication with an open structure, which can be defined as “... transmission of ideological-aesthetic information through a communication channel between two communicating structures with unequal order” [Popovic 1983, 21]. This fulfills the attributes (mentioned in the introduction) of cultural and literary science (and its concretization in the work of Lajos Haan). So the intellectual and material legacy of Lajos Haan is also important in this respect, because: “Similar to tangible cultural heritage, traditional performing arts as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity are valuable resources for development of heritage...” [Mura, Kajzar 2019, 42]. In this way, nowadays, too, many people can still encounter all kinds of treasures even in Bekescsaba.

In conclusion, we can say that Lajos Haan was also called “the decoration of Lowland Slovaks” by Dagmar Maria Anoca and Oldrich Knichal, because his work went beyond enlightenment activity and entered the world of regional and Hungarian science. He was actually a “Lowland historian priest and teacher” (Andrej Mraz). He was one of the most receptive, hard-working and most prolific authors of his time in his region - that is why he still deserves our attention and diverse treatment. And not just during jubilees.

References

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Picture appendices

The photographs are from the collection of the Mihaly Munkacsy Museum in Bekescsaba; collector: Jan Kocsor; originally also published in the book Slovensky knaz, madarsky historik; however, the manuscript of the diary is kept in the Szechenyi National Library in Budapest.

Photo 1. Portrait of Lajos Haan in 1880

Photo 2. Lajos Haan, Karohna Haan and his second wife Amalia Vilim in 1866

Photo 3

Photo 4

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