The Golden Gate is Open

Why do you like “Climb, climb green branch” so much?

Because it has given occasion for so many nice variations. The song is very beautiful, too, especially my favourite version that continues with “Open your gate, my rose”. 

Isn’t the continuation then “Through it, through it, the barn has collapsed?”

No, no. I have no idea why the collapsed barn with the cat inside has spread in nursery schools. Poor cat. My heart always bleeds for it if I imagine the cat under the collapsed barn. I can even hear its mewing crying as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if nursery-school children cried for it too.

How do you sing it then?

“Open your gate, my rose, let me come into your castle. Sieve-sieve Friday, love Thursday, drum Wednesday.” We can find more variations of this kind in Treasury of Hungarian Folk Music.

Do you play it in the form collected from children’s games?

When I was a child we used to play it in that way in the meadow, in Szany. At the end of the song the gate holders dropped their hands down and the one who was caught under the dropped hands could choose which gate holder he/she would stand behind. The gate holders put their heads together, chose words, words in pairs. “Where are you going?” they asked, “to the goose or to the duck?” or “to the rose or to the violet?” or “to the broom or to the shovel?”

Why don’t you play it in this way now with your children?

Because I would like to turn my children’s attention to the varieties of gates. There are many kinds of gates, I have seen many different beautiful old gates all over the world. I would like the children to invent gates too, and to impersonate them with their movements.

How can you impersonate gates with movements?

One of our nicest gates was created by the four year old Gábor yesterday, raising his beautiful hands above his head, stretching high up. His hands especially touch my heart because Gábor was born with underdeveloped hands. He has had several operations on them to date. 

What do you ask from your children, what kind of gates?

Just this: “Make a gate out of yourself, now of this sort, now of that sort, of all sorts. Of any sorts, as you like it. 

Do they make them?

Of course. I encourage, praise everyone’s gates. Sometimes I tell them why we are pleased with this or that gate. Why we find the gates nice or pleasurable.

For example?

For example, because he leans with his hands and legs on the ground. Or, because she bends one of her hands and thus the arch of the gate looks interesting. Or, because he pulled faces and thus he put decoration on his gate with his face. Or, because she moved her socks with her toes and thus she had a finely dancing gate. I can find something interesting in everybody.

And your aim is…?

My aim is to strengthen the child’s confidence and courage since his/her individual invention is praised, appreciated. What he/she invents is significant for the others. Experience teaches him/her this conviction, recurring experience.

But these are tiny differences, barely observable; are they significant at all?

Yes, they are significant. Children’s early experiences are closely related to their own bodies. If a child creates something out of his/her body on the basis of his/her imagination, that something will be his/her real experience. He himself is the gate as she herself is the bunny, or the fox or the wolf. Animals are of course much more interesting than gates, But I like to take them to the realms of art, and a gate is already a piece of architecture. Gates can be a wonder, as well as noticed.

But in reality most of the gates are ugly!

Then they should recognize the difference between the ugly and the beautiful, the precious and the worthless. One can’t start education early enough in this respect.

Do you present both ugly and beautiful things?

Not in this introductory phase. I don’t present anything because I don’t want them to imitate me. I want them to invent and to discover. If I compared and evaluated one child’s movements with another’s, their creative spirit would halt. They would imitate each other, that is, the one that I praised. I offer praise to everybody, and I accept everyone without exceptions.

But how will they learn which gate is beautiful and which is ugly?

I trust the opportunities life provides, i.e. that the parents or the teachers will show the child the Buda Castle, for example, with its vistas and beauties. Or a bridge that is nice to look at as it crosses the rolling Danube. The doorway of an old house, or the gate of a gothic church. One doesn’t necessarily have to explain such things, it is enough to stand in front of them and enjoy them. 

Do you ask anything about the gate?

The other day out of curiosity I asked my older children what they think gates are for. They were striving to outdo one another as they answered: against thieves. They had no doubt about that. In our country gates and fences are a must, unavoidable things: building starts with them. If children think in terms of fences, it is as appalling to me as their shooting and bombing games. They have firsthand information about this from their adults, from their authentic models.

Not from all adults though?

From most of them. In our house of twelve flats, tenants have been fighting for years for a fence surrounding the building, and they have had an ugly iron front gate made so that they could make the objecting minority accept the fence. All this while the house badly needs basic renovation. Faces are distorted, voices become faltering with irritation if the fence comes into discussion.

Isn’t the case the same in other countries too?

I haven’t seen many fences in Scandinavian countries or in England. They plant hedgerows, and shrubs. The path between two bushes is the golden gate, it is open, just like in our song. 

Would you like gates to be open?

Very much so! I would like our gates to be made of gold, the symbol of love, warmth and acceptance. You can come to me, you can hope that I will care about you, that I pay attention to you, that I will cry with you and laugh with you. “The golden gate is open. Let’s walk through it!” Why wouldn’t you enter? You won’t be greeted by a dog that bites, an owner with a frightening appearance, or a paid security man required officially to look scary. 

Aren’t you chasing dreams? Can’t you see reality?

Reality is the present. Dreams are the future. Children are allowed to dream, and we prepare them for the opportunities beauty affords. If we didn’t act in this way, we would make way for bad things, all sorts of hiding and escaping. To hide, to go into exile is miserable. But if the golden gate is open, they can walk under it, they will be received by smiles, through the gate they arrive somewhere where it is good to be. Go on, walk through the golden gate, bravely, singing.