Very Short History of the Hungarian People with
Emphasis on Transylvania and the Hungarian Folk Costumes of Transylvania :

• In 5th century, the Hungarian tribes left the area of the Urals. After several hundred years of wandering, in 896 AD they reached the land between the Danube and Tisza (what today is Eastern Hungary.)
• In 1000 AD King Istvan converted his subjects to Christianity. Some of the Hungarian polulation slowly moved out into the neighboring areas, what today is knows as Western Hungary, Slovenia, Moravia, Croatia, Slovakia, Vojvodina, and Transylvania
• In 1241 AD The Mongol invaded and totally devastated Hungary, as a result:
• the Hungarian Kings invited Germans (Saxon) and later the Sekelys to settle in Transylvania, along the Charpatian Mountains, as a buffer between the future invaders and the Magyar (Hungarian) population. Most of the Magyars, then, as well as nowadays, lived in Hungary proper, but there were also Magyars in Transylvania.
• In 1526 AD Ottoman Turks defeated the Hungarian army and 150 years of Turkish occupation of Hungary started.
• While Hungary proper was under Turkish occupation, the Hungarians from Transylvania kept alive the Hungarian spirit and culture.
• Under the influence of Saxon, local Romanian, neighboring Slovak, Serbian, Croatian, Polish, German (Austria, Styria) population, also the wandering Gypsy population, the Transylvanian Hungarians developed particularities in their folk costumes.
• Some "experts" consider that there are 7 (seven) groups of Hungarians in Transylvania, each with their own folk style dress: Torocko, Kalotaszeg, Mezoseg, Maros, Szekely, Puszta (Banat), and Csango. Bihor and Szatmar, while different from other Transylvanian Hungarians are very similar to neighboring Hungarians across the border.