The native land of hemp is Central Asia. He reached Europe through mass migration. The Hungarians got to know it even before the Hungarian conquest, growing it for its yarn and oilseeds. In the Carpathian Basin it is distributed mainly in the central, southern and eastern areas. For centuries, hemp was the most important household industry crop on Hungarian peasant farms. It was usually grown in the border area near the settlement, in an area specially designated for this purpose. Their memory is still preserved by numerous geographical names.
A high-quality, usually deep-lying area was chosen as hemp land. Hemp was sown by hand, in the same way as cereals. It was either sprinkled and harrowed on fresh ploughing, or sown on flattened ploughing and hoeed in. When the color of the plant changed from green to yellow, it was plucked out. They tore it up by hand and laid it out in small handfuls and dried it. After drying, in autumn, soaking and processing took place. For the most part, hemp was grown on a small area, as much as a family could process during the winter after autumn work. Subsistence peasant hemp production was suppressed by the expanding manufacturing industry from the second half of the last century.
The origin of industrial hemp and its ethnographic traditions
Hemp is the most important industrial plant Hungary among those having rich bast fiber content. For a hemp land, a good quality area is chosen usually located at a deeper sea level. Hemp is sown by hand, in the same way as cereal crops. It is either sprinkled and harrowed on fresh ploughing, or sown on flattened ploughing and hoeed in. When the color of the plant changes from green to yellow, it is plucked out and the process is called hemp weaving. Then soaking and processing takes place. The native land of hemp is Central Asia. It reached Europe through mass migration. The Hungarians got to know it even before the Hungarian conquest, growing it to make yarn and for its oily seeds. In the Carpathian Basin it was grown mainly in the central, southern and eastern areas, while in the western and northern parts flax seeds remained to be the most important fiber crop. For centuries, hemp was the most important cottage industry crop on Hungarian peasant farms. It was grown usually in the outskirts of a settlement, in an area specially designated for this purpose. The memory of growing hemp is still preserved by numerous geographical names in Hungary, like Kenderes, Kendereskert, Kenderesföld and others. For the most part, hemp was grown on a small area, so that a family could process it during the winter after autumn work. Self-sufficent hemp production was suppressed by the expanding manufacturing industry starting from the second half of the last century.
Beliefs and magical procedures associated with hemp is usually the principle of analogy. For sowing hemp, the seed must be prepared on Shrove Tuesday. So, at the time of leaving meat behind and starting the fasting season, people would jump high,, cook long noodles in the soup, go to many places to dine, put hemp fiber in the rut to make hemp fibers long. Sowing was regulated by various regulations and prohibitions: according to a popular belief, Friday was the best day for sowing, even better if there was neither sun nor moon in the sky at that time. It was believed that hemp sown naked, speechless, from a new clay pot yielded a good long-stemmed crop. It was predicted that if there were long icicles at the end of Feb, hemp would be long. According to popular belief , the base of hemp breaks on St. Anne’s Day, and from then on it does not grow, only turns yellow. Green hemp when put in bed is useful against fleas, folk practice has held. Hemp seeds were also used to remove jinxes.
