The preservation of the bobbin lace tradition from Balatonendréd in local education
The preservation of the bobbin lace tradition from Balatonendréd in local education (2014)
Balatonendréd is located in Somogy County, just an arm’s length away from the Lake Balaton. Its folk art treasure, the bobbin lace, became an essential part of the community’s life and also inseparable from the name of the village. Its renewed, re-designed and specific pattern (it’s trademark including the snowflake, the peacock tail, the peony, the turkey oak leave, the violet leave, the tulip and the sunflower) qualifies it to call this otherwise elsewhere also known bobbin lace making technique, the technique of Balatonendréd.
The bobbin lace making of Balatonendréd and the preservation of its tradition are connected directly to the municipality and the roots of it are connected to the Belgian lace-makers’ tradition. In 1908 Endre Kájel, a local protestant pastor, recognized the European demand for the lace products and furthermore he provided jobs for the women of the village with the teaching of the lace making. All women and girls of the village’s protestant inhabitants learned how to make the lace already at the year of the foundation.
The contemporary preservation of the bobbin lace making tradition were undertaken by the Council of Balatonendréd and the Local Elementary School, because the old women, who carried the knowledge of the lace making, can hardly be found in the village anymore. Since 1996 the bobbin lace making takes an important place in the elementary school’s local curriculum. It is a priority and also an important task to teach the future generations to respect the past’s heritage. First, the children get acquainted with the simpler movements, the history of the lace and the tools of the bobbin lace making in an individual pace, depending on the dexterity within the framework of the lessons. The more talented ones can deepen and increase their knowledge in study-groups. The program collaterally creates jobs for the future generations. The Council of Balatonendréd has a significant role in the process of the preservation: it provides the tools, creates occasions to the presentations and from the press to the tourism tries to find the opportunities to show or introduce the bobbin lace tradition of Balatonendréd.
The responsible institution for the professional coordinating of the UNESCO Convention in Hungary:
Directorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Hungarian Open Air Museum
