This article is about the economic conditions in Borson-Abauj-Zemplen County in Hungary and the way women, especially elder women, are turning to their traditional artistry to improve their incomes.
RADIO FREE EUROPE : TARD VILLAGE MATYO EMBRODERIE
Excerpts: The practice of Matyo embroidery is through to have started around 200 years ago and has since been passed down through the generations. The women living in Tard mastered their skills, embroidering the distinctive flowers and leaves, by watching their mothers, who had learned it from their own mothers.
According to local mythology, the technique was born when the devil kidnapped a man and asked for the most colorful flowers as a ransom. In the dead of winter, in order to get her husband back, his young bride presented the devil with a set of richly embroidered flowers.
According to local mythology, the technique was born when the devil kidnapped a man and asked for the most colorful flowers as a ransom. In the dead of winter, in order to get her husband back, his young bride presented the devil with a set of richly embroidered flowers.
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Like many towns and villages in Hungary's northeast, Tard has been in decline since the wider regional collapse of heavy industry and mining after the fall of communism. Across Hungary, some 1.9 million people -- 12 percent of the population - now live in poverty. According to 2019 statistics, 15 percent of people over the age of 65 lived in deprivation.
