#zilina

"What can I say about the beautiful custom, already praised by many writers, that the young daughters - and sons - of our people accompany and sweeten almost every work in the fields with singing? One cannot hide the fact that in more recent times this folk singing has somehow fallen silent here and there, and especially on the Hungarian-Slovak borderlands; indeed, when it is heard, you can hear Hungarian chants here and there, as well as Slovak chants with Hungarian song content. So the times are not very good for the people, and the border conditions are affecting the singing nature of the people. But in contrast to this, there is always enough Slovak singing, original and resounding in the valleys and mountains of our country. The tuneful Slovaks know how to sing just the right song for every step and for every farm work, just as the others do, at games, parties, trips, weddings, etc., songs made of their minds and feelings. They sing in the spring when planting and hoeing the fields; when going to the grass for the cows, the glades and groves echo with their songs (mostly love songs); the hillsides and mountains also echo with them when picking strawberries and raspberries; in summer, when raking and drying, not only the hay rustles, when harvesting, not only the sickles whistle, but also the singing rustles and resounds; even in the autumn, when gathering the harvest and in the forest, when gathering hazelnuts, or even when gathering oak cones and hawthorns, as if to celebrate the beauties and gifts of nature, the fields, the mountains, the mines resound with singing."