Csángó Land
Ethnographic region of Romania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Csángó Land (Hungarian: Csángóföld; Romanian: Țara Ceangăilor, Ținutul Ceangăiesc or Ceangăimea) is the name given to the region in Western Moldavia, in turn a region of Romania, where most of the Csángós, a small subgroup of the Hungarians, live. Csángó Land is located close to the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, in the valley of the Siret River, near the town of Roman[1] and Bacău. It may also be defined as the part of Bacău County where ethnic Hungarians reside as a minority.[2]
Csángó Land
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 Flag  Coat of arms | |
 Map of the areas where Csángós are present, whether as a minority or a majority. Black: Csángós of Western Moldavia. Green: Csángós around the Ghimeș-Palanca Pass. Red: Csángós of the Seven Villages. The Csángós of Northern Dobruja are not shown in this map. | |
| Country |  Romania |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
The Csángós, although mostly living in Moldavia, also live in Transylvania (part of Romania as well), precisely in two zones. These are the area around the Ghimeș-Palanca Pass and the so-called Seven Villages.[2] Additionally, there is a Csángó village in Northern Dobruja, a region also in Romania, known as Oituz (in Constanța County).[3] The Csángós speak a Hungarian dialect known as Csángó. The Council of Europe claimed the number of speakers of this dialect to be of 60,000 to 70,000 people in 2001.[4] However, in the 2011 Romanian census, only 4,208 (0.68%) and 829 (0.13%) of the inhabitants of Bacău County declared themselves Hungarian and Csángó, respectively.[5]
The Csángós live near a much larger subgroup of Hungarians, the Székelys, who also live in the eastern Carpathian Mountains, in Transylvania. They also have a region named after them, Székely Land, divided mostly between the Covasna, Harghita, and Mureș counties of Romania.[2] The Székelys have strived for making Székely Land an autonomous region in Romania.[6] This is not the case of the Csángós, who have not made any request for autonomy.[4]