While the early settlers fought invaders and lived off the lands as nomads and herders, the people didn't take too long to settle the lands and form permanent settlements. However, the lifestyle was still based on the lands as farming and raising animals was at the core of the daily life.
As the people of Europe settled and the Magyars began interacting with neighboring people, the culture and the lifestyle changed dramatically. While their language remained, nearly everything else changed, beginning with their conversion to Christianity, their first link to Europe in a cultural sense. This new religion also encouraged foreign settlers to the lands, settlers who arrived with new ideals, technologies, and foods.
Although power shifted over time, the Magyars continued to develop their own particular culture and lifestyle, a culture and lifestyle that was always tied to Europe. The similarities between Hungarian culture and European culture peaked with Austrian-Hungarian unification as these two powers controlled much of central and eastern Europe. This helped spread Hungarian influence, while also introducing cultural aspects from neighboring countries to Hungary.
The lifestyle also continued to change over time, particularly under communist rule in the 1900s. While the communists introduced new technologies and better infrastructure, they also urbanized the population to a great degree, changed the occupations of the people, and altered the economy and political situation. This changed the lifestyle and the mentality of the people as the Hungarians gained a stronger identity, one that was very opposed to communism, communist principles, and most particularly a communist economy.
Today the Magyars are an anomaly in many ways as they are ethnically Central Asian and still speak a language from that region. However, today the Magyars are more culturally tied to Europe as nearly every aspect of their culture reflects this continent, although they maintain many unique aspects of their culture, not unlike their language and ethnicity.