In memoriam Dr. Ernő Barsi
A permanent exhibition of the life's work of Dr. Ernő Barsi was opened on 5 December 2022 in the library of the János Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Pedagogy, Humanities and Social Sciences in Győr.
As an ethnographer, Dr. Ernő Barsi contributed to the multifaceted ethnographic description of his homeland and the exploration of the Hungarian folk treasure with a multitude of books. He spent more than half a century in the faculty, instilling a love of folklore in generations of teachers. He was a folk music researcher, a Reformed pastor, an educator, a college teacher, a violinist, a choir leader, a saviour of values and a disseminator of knowledge. He toured the country with his violin, to present the character of Hungarian folk music and its treasures to be preserved with tasty words and musical illustrations. His aim was to make his listeners and readers familiar with our traditions, to love and cherish them, and to incorporate them into their spiritual life.
After graduation in 1947, he was offered a violin teaching position at the Győr Conservatory. From the 1950s onwards he regularly collected folk music material in his home village, then in Győr, in the Kisalföld, in the regions of Lake Balaton and Lake Venice, in the Bodrogköz, the Bükkkalja, the Csallóköz, Mátyusföld, Transylvania, the Austrian Őrvidék and the Sumen region in Bulgaria. Besides ethnographic collecting and teaching, he regularly gave scientific and educational lectures.
He obtained his PhD in ethnography in 1970 and started his 53rd year at the faculty in September 2012. He initially taught singing and violin at the college and later founded a specialised college of ethnography. Several of his students have chosen ethnography as a profession under his influence. He played a major role in the national promotion and popularisation of ethnography, and his work is still relied on for the transmission of folklore in kindergarten and school. His work as an ethnographer consists of more than forty books, four hundred papers and over five thousand lectures. During his career he has been invited to many countries in Europe and Canada. His work has been recognised with numerous state, county and city awards and honours. He died at the age of ninety-three.
The exhibition organised by the Dr. Ernő Barsi College is open to the public and free of charge during library opening hours.