Folk Calendar – October 2014

There’s so much going on, but now that the September back-t0-school stress is over, here’s what’s happening in the folk world.

Many of these events are happening in the Greater Toronto Area, but there’s also traditional saints days and other folk holidays that you could celebrate wherever you live.

Happening in the GTA

Click on dates to be taken to event pages.

October 3 – The Kodaly Ensemble is having an open practice with teachers from Hungary to kick off the start of a new dance year. See poster below for details.

October 4-5 – Így tedd rá! Is one of the leading dance methodology programs in Hungary, geared towards learning to teach kids. They’re doing a North American tour and this workshop is their only Canadian stop. The teachers are from Hungary and they specialize in teaching dance instruction methodology.

October 5 – The Vychodna Slovak Dancers are having their 30th Anniversary show! Congratulations!

October 9 – The Kodály Ensemble’s first official practice with their new teachers from Hungary.

October 9 – Ventanas @ Cafe Chez Helen – If you want some energy but don’t want to go all out gaga, then check out Ventanas. They play a mix of Sephardic-Flamenco-Balkan and (psst!) they’re nominated for two Canadian Folk Music Awards this year!

October 10 – The Lemon Bucket Orkestra is back in town! They’ve been touring Canada all summer and then working on their latest CD. Go check them out at The Opera House.

October 11-12 – In the mood for a road trip? The Western Canadian Hungarian Folk Festival kicks of in Regina this weekend. Sadly, I have yet been able to attend, but Toronto/Montreal favourite folk band, Gyanta, will be in attendance, as usual.

Folk Calendar

There are lots of important things traditionally happening in Hungary at this time. The biggie? Wine time!

You can read all about it here in this online version (sorry it’s in Hungarian) of the Encyclopedia of Hungarian Ethnography. The Hungarian Electronic Library is an awesome resource. I check it out often as a starting point for my research, and I occasionally find resources in English, too. Awesome! Cause my academic Hungarian is not the greatest.

The folk calendar is marked by a lot of saints days. It was an easy way of keeping track of your calendar, because these days were often feast days in the Church if not the whole village. So, here are some notables:

St. Teresa – October 15 – This was the start of the grape harvest in many regions. In the south, it was also a day when women were banned from doing their household chores, most notably laundry and bread baking.

St. Ursula – October 21 – So, following a day of feasting, St. Ursula’s day was the day to forecast the weather for the winter. If it was a nice day, it would be a mild winter, and vice versa if it wasn’t.

St. Dömötör – October 26 – Time for a party. St. Dömötör is the patron saint of shepherds, so this day was a big deal. Particularly in Szeged, the party could go on for days, since St. Dömötör was also the patron saint of their church. Unfortunately, the traditions surrounding this saints day fell out of popularity around the turn of the last century, so there’s not too much to be found happening today.

So that’s what we’ve got going this month. Stay tuned for November, there’s some cool things coming up.

Have something you’d like to include in next month’s folk calendar? Drop me a line!