This weekend I attended a festival that has been on my radar for a long time, but somehow I have never been able to attend. The festival is called Forgatag and it it held each year in Targu Mures. Translated to English, forgatag would mean whirlwind, which can be confusing, but a festival is always like a whirlwind.
The purpose of the festival is to create a community-building meeting of the Hungarian community of Marosvásárhely and tens of thousands of people descended from the city and it is also a cultural parade of Transylvanian Hungarians . It's a 3 day festival with hundreds of activities held in several locations for all age category, from the youngest, to the oldest. No matter what is the area of your interest, I'm sure you're going to find something that suits you.
This is an annual festival, always held at the end of August I think, so if you're visiting the city, this time of the year, look online for the schedule and try to attend as it's a lot of fun, especially if you have kids.
The event started on Friday, but I chose Saturday for my trip and my destination was the medieval fortress, which is not far from the city center.
There was a fair outside the walls, a very interesting one, but today that's not the focus of my blog, so I'm going to write about it in another day.
As soon as I entered the fortress, I saw the tents and the boards with the information one needs to be able to navigate better and also decide what to visit and when.
Even though the festival was organized for the ethnic Hungarian, everyone was welcome and the participants were f every nationality. I've heard many Romanian speakers, English as well and Ukrainians too. The fun is always for everyone.
Local news outlets were present right at the entrance, waiting for the interested parties with lots of information and printed papers and fliers.
As I mentioned, the majority of the activities were for kids and the main purpose was to show them there's life without electronic gadgets, as well as teach them about long forgotten activities. Most if not all the toys were eco-friendly, made of wood or canvas, as it's been for ages, before plastic appeared in out life.
In this tent you could participate in canvas painting with plants. This is not a usual activity you see every day, but this is how it's been done in the past and it's an environmentally friendly activity. It doesn't concern the festival, but the textile industry is one of the biggest polluter of the planet, so getting back to old customs is not such a bad idea.
Unfortunately photos don't have audio, but you should have heard the noise here, shouting, screaming because there was so much fun!
Meet the future builders. Also please note that all the toys and the tables are made of wood, which is a very good thing, a step towards a better tomorrow, their future.
Can you guess why are these kids standing in line? Yes, that's right, face painting! This activity is always attractive and no kid would ever skip it.
O tried to take a photo of the artwork, without being to intrusive. As you can see, I think it's a tiger, but it's rather good.
Doing puzzle under the table, in the shade 😀, what could be more fun?
There was several work stations for future painters too. This little guy decided to put a lot of dark brown dots on the face of the old man. I could not figure out why, but never question an artist's choice.
This was the area where there were the coolest and most interesting toys/games. I suppose this was the ancestor of tennis as it is a ball game, played by two, with some flag-like things, which was a piece of canvas on two sticks. I watched the lady with her son and can say it's not exactly an easy game.
This was even more fun. Fishing! 😂 Have you ever seen kids trying to catch a painted wooden fish with a wooden stick that had a hook on one end, out of a wheelbarrow? It takes a bit of a talent, but these little ladies loved it.
Next, in the background, another cool activity you have only seen in old English movies. These were the legs people used back in the 18th (I suppose) century, to avoid walking in mud. Streets were nothing like they are today, so they needed a tool to keep their shoes clean. Now you see these legs used only at the circus. These kids obviously could not take one step with them, but it was a lot of fun trying.
In the background there was the small stage, where you young lads were practicing for the big performance. Judging from the instruments and the folk costumes on display, I'd say there must have been about folk dance, which would make sense.
Can you guess what these tiny humans are doing? They are playing a strange but very cool game. Basically it's a race between a few players, to see who's snail gets in first. You need to pull the snail by winding up the yarn. I've never seen this one, but it's a cool one.
A band and a lady with an audience of all ages. This lady was telling kids what fun meant in the past centuries, how tea parties were organized, how the young ladies were asked for a dance and what the proper etiquette looked like back in those days.
This was one of the coolest thing there. For those of you not familiar with it, this is a loom, an apparatus for making fabric by weaving yarn or thread. Back in those days people had to be self sufficient, women were making fabric at home, then clothes using that fabric. Kids only know clothes from the department store, maybe fabric from the same place, but not many know how fabric is made.
Have you ever seen such tools? Do you know how to use them? :)
Need a ride? Jump in! This little lady is ready to drive you to your destination 😂🤣 I keep saying this was the coolest thing but this indeed was cool.
Look at this cool car.
Drawing can't be missing either, so here are two potential artists, trying to sort out colors for the big masterpiece.
The next coolest thing was this one. This is a sling-shot. We used to have something similar, when we were kids, but that was smaller and easier to use once you got the hang of it. You need some practice for this though, but kids loved it.
It's a very simple weapon. There's a bullet, or a ball in this case, which you place in that leather part, then pull the rubber band back, aim and let go of it. This looks like and it is a toy now, but have been used as a weapon in the past, when there were no guns or firearms. It's still a good one, I would fool around with it, but you can get into trouble in the city for that.
There was a health island too, where kids were taught about mixing chemicals together to get a reaction, about the Nobel prize.
This young gentleman was told about what blood pressure is and how it is taken.
I can honestly say I've never seen a similar event and that this was much needed. Instead of video games and all kinds of plastic crap, Saturday these kids had the opportunity to go back in time and experience a simple life. I think in order to be successful in life, you need to know the past. Teaching kids is never a waste of time and it is more efficient when it's presented as playing. So many kids had a lot of fun that day and I bet they are going to attend next year as well.
This was mostly for kids, but there were a lot of other activities, like book shows, folk dance and concerts in the evenings. I think next year I'm going to explore the rest of the activities, if my schedule allows.
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I wish there were activities like that, all over the world, in open spaces where children have free access and experience the adventure of learning while having fun. I was delighted to stop by.
I'm glad to hear that and I agree with you 💯%. It's important even from a very young age as this is what they are going to remember.
Thanks for stopping by and have a nice evening.
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Hi @erikah, that is a great event, especially for weekend for both parents and children. I can see that there are many different ages of children and also parents with prams. Luckily, the weather looks absolutely amazing. The weather made it possible to spread everything for such a huge territory. It is nice to see that although it is well visited but not crowded. Could you notice that such events help children to learn something in real live rather than on their computer devices that unfortunately, completely taken over majority of their interest. Lovely posts and awesome photography :)
Indeed it was a very nice event and very different from what people are used to. This is a 4.5 hectare green space, plenty of room for everyone, that's why this venue has been selected. The weather indeed was nice and that as a blessing. Would have been a shame to lose all this due to rain.
Thank you for the nice words and for stopping by.
Firstly the photos are so beautiful, so much life in it. Also teaching kids is never a waste . This is so wonderful, the fact that kids are learning and having fun at the same time will help them even learn better. I love this event already. So nice reading this. Photography top notch 🥹❤️
Thank you @sweetsoul. I tried to take some decent photos but where there's a crowd, the photographer's job becomes difficult.
Pairing up learning with having fun is the best way to teach kids. They get bore easily, so this is a good way to keep them focusing.
Thanks for the nice words.
Ure welcome dear
This is fun and a learning experience for everyone. It's good that there are activities like this to encourage kids away from screen time.
Congrats for being featured by @curangel!
Thank you @leeart, indeed it's good that these activities can take place. Imagine how much those, who don't have possibility to participate, lose.
There should be more activities like this :)
I couldn't agree more. Learn while playing :)
Positive activities to help children develop creativity and thinking power. Full support if in my area there will be an activity like this and I want to be involved in it because for me children need a strong foundation for them to look at the right future.
Indeed, education and opportunity to learn and experience can bring out the best and these activities can help a lot. These kids has a lovely day and left with amazing memories.
Love seeing those kids enjoying the festival .. So much fun there.
You should have seen them live. There was so much fun indeed.
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Of course! 😜
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A festival that is Enough festive, and it seems that you quite enjoyed it, greetings to you
I enjoyed it along with thousands of others. Greetings to you too :)
There’s a festival in Ghana where you see people walking on a very high version of the legs the kids were walking on. I don’t know the name of the festival because I don’t celebrate it (it’s celebrated by a certain ethnic group which I’m not part of) but it’s a very beautiful festival with lots of traditional dances and display of culture. I’ll try to do a but of digging and edit this comment with the name of the festival when I find it. Honestly, until today, I didn’t know the purpose of the legs thing was to keep shoes clean in the medieval times. Thinking about it now, I guess I never really wondered why people use it.
Kids around here go bird hunting with the smaller versions of the sling shots. I did myself when I was little. Another thing kids these days don’t do lol. Teaching kids about chemicals though, not a great idea imo especially if there are kids like me back in the day.😂
A day or two like this every once a while will be really fun and will really go a long way to seeing the fun in the old ways.
It's nice to hear that there's a similar activity in your country and that these wooden legs are used.
Shooting bird with the sling shot was never for me. I could never hurt a bird or any other living creature, so I'd rather shoot beer cans or bottles :)
Haha that’s understandable.
What lovely activities that takes us back to natural times. Children's potential gift should be recognised all over the world especially in Africa for they are the leaders of tomorrow. The pictures are great, clear and lovely as well. How much the Internet, video games have taken our natural skills and thinking...May our kids be inspired to bring out and use their great talent to save the world.
Thank you for the nice words. Kids' potential gift should be recognized all over the world equally in my opinion and let's hope it can happen.
I've known you for a long time. I see you are very amazing now. already has considerable power. and I see from the power that you have, you finally have the arrogance. you feel great with what you have right now.
what is the reason you donwvote in my post. do you have a problem with me?
did you not see the content of the post?
Here's you reply
https://peakd.com/apology/@erikah/re-aulia1993-rhd6nv