Interview people that still wear folk costumes in your village or town and contribute to this collection of Folk Costumes!
Age group: 8-18
In some European regions the tradition of folk costumes is still alive. People continue to make costumes and wear them. In many other regions, costumes are still made but mostly for dance groups or choirs. In other areas the folk tradition has almost completely disappeared and the folk dress from those regions is revived through paintings, museum collections and written accounts.
Nowadays the folk costumes are a useful source for costume designers. Fashions changed, new materials became available, urban influences began to be felt and genuinely new traditions arose.
The European folk costumes were based primarily on fabrics created and decorated by the local people. Sometimes certain elements would be imported, but most of the clothes were made of linen, cotton, wool, felt, leather and fur, available in the community. Most country people wore folk costumes daily and rougher clothing was worn to work, while more elaborate and highly ornamented dress was reserved for special occasions like church, festivals and weddings.
Languages: Your own language and others if possible;
Suggested activities for the classroom:
Identify people in your community who still wear folk costume;
Visit and ask them to describe it, including info about used materials and the symbols of patterns. It is known that each region, even a village has its own unique costumes;
Take a picture and write your description, and contribute to this unique collection of the European Folk Costumes on the 'myEUROPE' site.
Buschogang in Mohács is a special project inspired by our activity 'Folk Costumes'. A group of children in Pécs, Hungary share their work by presenting us a festival and its special folk costumes from Mohács. The narrative is available in German.
