Hibernate is an object-relational mapping tool that allows developers to interact with a relational database (such as MySQL) using object-oriented programming. It provides functionality for persisting Java objects to tables in a database and querying those objects using HQL or native SQL. Hibernate utilizes XML mapping files or annotations to define how Java classes map to database tables. A typical Hibernate application includes entity classes that represent database tables, configuration files, and a controller class to manage persistence operations.