Music/Folklore paper by Pál-Kovács, Dóra
Hungarian Open Air Museum

Intangible Cultural Heritage Communities in the Pandemic (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
In my presentation, I will try to illustrate the impact of the pandemic on intangible cultural
heritage in Hungary through the practices of ICH communities and the specific responses
that emerged. I will examine the communities which are in the national inventory of
intangible cultural heritage for example Busó festivities, blue-dyeing tradition and táncház
method. Hungary joined the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage in 2006. Intangible cultural heritage is essentially a cultural practice that exists in
oral form, in knowledge, skills and customs, and can be linked to living communities. This
intangible cultural heritage, handed down from generation to generation and constantly
recreated by communities, provides them with a shared identity and a sense of continuity.
The Convention aims to safeguard these communal practices, to strengthen the identity of
communities with their own cultural identity, thereby promoting the mutual recognition of
cultural diversity, and to raise awareness of the importance of intangible forms of
expression. A general characteristic of heritage communities is that they respond to the
world around them, constantly shaping their traditions. During the period of the COVID-19
pandemic, these communities, like the world at large, were in a state of constant change,
and the heritage communities had to respond to the pandemic.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dóra Pál-Kovács is coordinator of the Directorate for the Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Hungarian Open Air Museum. She gained her Bachelor Degree in 2012 and Master Degree in 2014 in the field of ethnography and dance anthropology at the University of Szeged. She defended her PhD dissertation titled "Men and female in dance tradition of Magyarózd" in 2019 at Babeş–Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Her research topic is about examining gender roles within the dance tradition of Magyarózd in the 20th century.