By Szeklerland we understand the old Szekler populations’ chairs in Transylvania: today’s Covasna, Harghita and the Mureş counties. In the Mediaeval times the area of the Szekler region was composed by the so called chairs, which at the time were having the following names: The Chair of Mureş, The Chair of Odorhei, The Chair of Ciuc and Three Chairs.

The Szeklerland is determined by obvious natural borders, isolating the inhabitants from everything that is outside the area. The old popular habits were kept unbroken inside the borders, with their whole charge, specificity, language and vestment. This is also the reason why the Szekler calls his county with dignity: Szeklerland – The Szekler Country.

The Szeklers also have their own writing known as the Szekler-runic writing. Generally, the runic writing was realized by carving the woods, activity that determined also the name of this type of writing in the Hungarian language – rovasírás, a type of writing realized from the right to the left. The signs have also a decorative character, and that is the reason why they have been used also as ornament elements.

In this area the Szekler gates have their specific splendour. Generally, there is a separate gate for the vehicles and another for the people. The two gates are attached like a whole unit. In this way, the gate can also be covered. The specificity of the shape is given by the arch, that can be seen in 3 different types. The Szekler gates are also remarkable by means of the expressivity of the rhymes. In this sense, here there are a few eloquent examples:
„Peace to the guest, Blessing to the tripper.”
„If your intentions are good the gate’s open for you, otherwise your way may be treaded”
„The owner of the gate is a hospitable man, waiting for his guests with wide opened arms”.

At the Szeklers the traditions are yet strongly ingrained in their conscience: here traditions are kept alive with their ritual charge and they are the same even today: country weddings, the „Lăsata Secului”, The Eastern Feast and the day of the Parochial Patron. In these occasions are marked out the popular clothes, that are also worn by young people.

The Szekler gastronomy is based on a few basic culinary products: potatoes, cabbage, pork meat and cream; they illustrate the harsh weather and the biting colds of the winters in this area. The culinary delights prepared on occasions of the swine’s sacrifice are well-known: the bacon, the sausages, the toasted meat conserved in jars. Before the arrival of the potato the basic nutriments were the maize and the rye. The most appreciated spice is the caraway which gives the caraway stock by toasting it in oil. With the caraway they make also the „Szekler Caraway”, that is actually an alcoholic drink. The most popular desert is the „Kürtöskalács”, which got its name from the chimney of the stove, because the Szekler name the chimney „kürtőcső”. Hereby, „Kürtöskalács” has the size of the fire wood; the cake respects even its diameter. So „Kürtöskolács” is called that yeasted dough that is winded around a cylindrical wood, then is rolled into sugar, and during cooking it the sugar melts getting a caramel, giving brightness to the cake.
 

Three Chairs is located in the South-Eastern corner of Szeklerland. On its old location, now there are over 90 villages.
According to an aphorism they say that a Szekler asked God to give him just a surface with space for three chairs. When God made his wish, His tricky servant burned the three chairs and with their ashes managed to surround a quite large surface. This surface delimited by ashes he called it Three Chairs.

Three Chairs was never a unitary ethnographic image. Through the most important changes went Chair of Şepşi, but the most archaic area is considered the Chair of Orbai. The Chair of Kézdi (the today’s city called Târgu Secuiesc and its surroundings), as the surroundings of Baraolt is one of the regions with most traditions, where the oldest traditions are manifested, and the popular art is at home.

These areas are famous for their specific popular art, the wood processing, textile activities and the clay handicrafts that are still today very important for the inhabitants’ life.
Through the most significant wood processing handicrafts are included the furniture painting, carved chests, chiseled with decorations. The base colour of the furniture painted in Tg. Secuiesc is the dark green or a dark blue, over which they painted the crown with shining shades and the tulip with plaited petals. In the Orbai Chair the chests realized and decorated by sculpture had a shining red colour and green or blue niles, decorated with pinks and roses.
The painted furniture was a well-known product of the Baraolt area, and by this it was saved the ornamental treasure and the world of shapes specific to the Odorhei Chair delineating in this way it’s own stile that made it well-known. Also the wood chiseling was a renowned, found in this area too at the level of the Szekler gates specific not only to the inhabitants of the Odorhei but also coming until our days.
The popular art from Three Chairs, by means of it’s particularities in the culture of Szeklerland is representative for the nuance promoted, and we can say the same for the popular traditions. The best conserved traditions, still going on today, are specific to the celebration of „Lăsata Secului”. The Szekler local from Three Chairs finds himself best in the aphorisms and jokes that those who participate at the „Lăsata Secului” celebration are delighted with.
The Eastern traditions have a certain particularity, like eschewing the fields and the aspersion. Eschewing the fields has a magic character, in this way it is asked for their protection, and by prayers is established inclusively the sacred bond with the place. Also, by these joyful manifestations with the accompaniment of singing in the carts is taught to the young people where the borders are.
The Christmas habits are in a latent phase, most of them being forgotten at Three Chairs. From the religious celebrations was kept best the pilgrimage for the day of the Parochial Protector. For the Catholics of the superior area of Three Chairs pilgrimage spots were created for this occasion, and the most important is the one near the Sânziene.
 

The Chair of Odorhei is one of the old Szekler chairs as an independent region. It is located in the West side of the Szekler region, determined by the Homorodul Mare and Homorodul Mic, the creeks of Vărşag, and the other affluents.

The aesthetics and the functionality of the popular constructions in this region have been always there, together. The most important function of the family house was to ensure decent life conditions, but at the same time to create a proper climate for a family with a larger amount of members. The construction wasn’t acceptable without decorations. On the beam there were engraved inscriptions, on the pylons of the little towers there are chiseled ornaments, and the decorations of the frontage of different construction techniques made possible to realize the symbols desired. So beyond the character of habitat, the house had also the function delimitation of the owner in the society, giving him the social status he had in the community.

In the Szekler conscience the household is not conceivable without the specific gates that give a spectacular image to the street by way of their variety; in the Chair of Odorhei, the city of Satu Mare is the most representative from this point of view, because, by knowing the traditional value of the gates, they continue to be treasured.

Carving, chiseling the wood, braiding baskets, ceramic activities – they represent occupations that slowly turned into a trade, and in this way many villages became centers of these fields of activity.

The artisan products from the area illustrate the talent and the abilities of the artisans, and also their owners’ style and social position. The ornament can be found inclusively on the usual tools not only on the valuable ones. Unless their basic function of the decorations, they have been used also on the house objects also with magic purposes.
The straw hats and the knitting were visible in commerce also outside the borders of the Szekler region. The most visited habitat in the Chair of Odorhei is yet today Corund, known as a village center of the ceramic activities, the streets of which were changed almost instantly in market with stands according to the tourists requests.
 

The Chair of Mureş is an independent area and one of the old Szekler Chairs with capital in Tg. Mureş.
The Chair of Mureş is located by side of three rivers: Mureş, Niraj and Târnava Mică. The Niraj and the Târnava Mică are adjacent to the Mureş, and in amonte of them, dominates the Mount „Bekecs” (the „holly” mountain of the Chair of Mureş). „From the ornithological point of view, as from the hydrographic, the habitat of the Chair of Mureş has favorable conditions, with mild climate and it’s also the most teem agricultural area. Here sheefs of golden wheats of „Ceres” almost braid with the clusters of gapes of „Bachus”; here we find a proper land for vintages and also a proper area for viticulture,” wrote Orbán Balázs.
A habit specific to the area is eschewing the fields. In the second day of Eastern the aspersion starts, accompanied by the songsters.
The Chair of Mureş – county residence, Hungarians from the Plain of Cluj, and transition area to the Szekler specificity, having the most important culture of dance in Szekler region. Beside the levy Szekler dance, this region is also the country of the twisted dance „învârtita” specific to the Chair of Mureş, and also here appears for the first time the specificity of the „ciardaş” dance with the Szekler coloured moves or the gipsy „ciardaş” dance.
 

The Chair of Ciuc or the Country of Ciuc is the pond enclosed by the high firs of Harghita and of the Middle Carpathians. The Ciuc and Gheorgheni are the Szekler areas that, according to the ethnographic special bibliography, are considered important areas for preserving the traditions.
As it is well-known, the Chair of Ciuc is the pole of cold in Transylvania (also in Romania): it is a climatic curiosity. This happens because it’s a closed area, where temperature inversions are very frequent; the cold air amasses in the Olt’s valley, while the surrounding mountains have a wormer temperature even in winter.

The Ciuc area is the country of mineral waters and moffets, where we can meet a wide variety of waters containing iron, alkaline mineral salts, and radio-active waters with therapeutic effects. The inhabitants of the area have used the mineral water springs and the moffets in curative purposes for hundreds of years.
In the villages of this area there still are a few habits. Almost in each region is kept the feast of „Lăsata Secului”. Where this habit doesn’t exist, we will meet at least the masquerades. In a few villages in the low Ciuc region, Ciucul de Sus and Gheorgheni there still is the tradition of watching the holly grave in the Easter’s Friday and in most of the places was revived the tradition of eschewing the fields in the Eastern day.
The memory of carpet weaving is kept by the painted Ciuc carpet. Important centers of crockery existed in Dăneşti and Mădăraş. Painted carpets were made up to the end of the XIXth century. In certain isolated places from the Areas of Ciuc and Casin they still weave painted woolen carpets and coverlets.
In the spreaded areas of Ciuc there live the Ghimeş Ciangăi. They are located at the border of Moldova with Transylvania, in the spring’s area of the Trotuş River. Here the so called compact villages don’t exist, but only scattered houses divided in „creeks”. Often, they get their name from a family name (for instance, the Antal’s Creek).
According to Ghimeş Ciangăi, their ancestors were refugees in this area, trying to escape the levy, their name being accorded to this: a ceangăi = to leave the community. The similarity of their clothes with those of the Ciangăi in Moldova is explained also by the fact that they had to hide. Once they used these clothes to route their pursuers, so they cannot recognize them. A specific of their life style is the living in the hovel. Every spring, the people from Ghimeş moved to their summer residence and in the autumn, around St. Michael’s day, they moved back to their winter home. Their main occupation was to breed the animals in the mountains and the processing of the woods. Due to their border location they created their own culture that includes numerous Carpathian and Moldavian nuances. Despite the fact that their villages are quite scattered, their culture remains unitary. They have a rich ancient folklore, and the habit of the popular dance is much diversified. The main way to party of the Ghimeş Ciangăi was dancing. The ethnography specialists consider that there are approximately 35 occasions when they dance, and almost 30 different types of dancing. The main instrument of the villager musicians is the „gordonca”.