43rd National Táncház Festival & Fair • 5–7 April 2024
Issue:
Starting page: 43
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Part 2: Tradition and feeding infants and toddlers – honey for the soul. This writing discusses breast feeding in Hungary according to tradition and according to infant care trends in various periods. In many cultures, the child becomes an independent being only when the mother weans him/her. This motif appears in Hungarian folk tales, particularly in the type known as the “Son of the white horse”. Examples are provided. In old village life, after giving birth the midwife bathed the baby, wrapped it, then put it next to the mother and that’s where it stayed for six weeks, that’s where the baby slept. Only after that, did they put it in the cradle. Big changes in infant care came in the second half of the 20th century…no longer born at home, babies were born in hospitals; the first days of a baby’s life were spent separated from their mothers. By ethnographer Juhász Katalin.