International Roma Day

Gypsies have struggled unsuccessfully for centuries to defend their rights, and it was not until 1919 that deliberate attempts were made to create an organization to protect their interests. On April 27, 1919, the General National Assembly of the Roma of Transylvania was convened. Subsequently, they unsuccessfully made a number of attempts to improve their situation.

During World War II, the Roma of Romania went through a series of severe trials, as fascist ideology pursued a policy of discrimination against them. It was only in April 1971, namely April 6-8, that the World Roma Congress was held in London, which brought together representatives of 30 countries, and the International Roma Union was created, which is an international body designed to protect the rights and interests of Roma in all countries.

In 1723, Dmitry Kantemir, in his book “Historical, Geographical and Political Description of Moldavia”, said: “When and where did these peoples appear in Moldavia?” Even they do not know themselves and it is impossible to find anything about them in our chronicles.” The oldest documented mention of Roma slaves in Romania is dated October 3, 1385 (the Roma in Moldova – 1428). It says that Dan Voevoda is building housing forty Roma, received as a gift from the domnitritor (ruler of Romania) Vladislav. Consequently, the Roma were slaves. What is the reason for their slavery, let historians understand. One thing is clear - the Roma did not want to assimilate with the rest of the population, often preferring a nomadic lifestyle. This has sometimes caused inconvenience to the indigenous population. Even in the twentieth century, Ceausescu struggled with the Roma’s nomadic lifestyle habits. Slavery is slavery, whatever it may be.

Official documents of the period after 1600 use the term "slave" in reference to Roma, but it must be said that the word "Gypsy" at that time, by definition, was understood as "slave". That is why the Roma of Romania began to demand the use of the name "Roma", "Romala", and in the latest edition even with two letters "R" - "rromi", in order to differ from the similar sounding term - "Romani". The entire Romanian press has long since adopted this form of gypsy. I must say that ordinary gypsies are not offended if they are called in the old way.

Slavery deprived Roma of any possibility of making an independent decision in anything - they could not even marry or marry on their own, without the prior approval of their master. They had no other basic human rights. To understand the gravity of their situation, we quote from the Penal Code of 1818: “All gypsies are ‘slaves’ from birth.” If a gypsy does not have a master, it automatically becomes state property.”

Since 1760, the state, trying to solve the problem of gypsies, introduced a program of forced assimilation of gypsies in Transylvania. But to no avail. In 1783, on June 19, a law was introduced abolishing the slavery of the Roma of Bukovina. In 1785, Joseph II abolished the slavery of the Roma of Ardial, Transylvania. In 1789, Roma children were allowed to attend school on a par with children of other nationalities. It was only in 1798 that the first Roma lawyer, Stan Stoica, appeared in Romania. We will not list all the documents concerning Roma slavery in Romania, but the abolition of slavery has been slow. The last documents on the abolition of slavery in other areas of Romania date back to 1861.

The so-called “international king of all Roma” lives in Romania. This is Florin Cioaba, who became famous throughout Europe for the scandalous marriage of his underage daughter (at the time she was 12 years old). Many in Romania consider him a self-proclaimed king, especially since there is another king and one gypsy emperor in Romania. It is difficult for us to understand which of them and what rights "to the throne" has, and where this throne is located, but Cioabe has already tried to acquire several palaces of Romania.

Romanian Roma are very distinctive and have a number of distinctive features in different areas of Romania. The main feature of Roma in Romania as a whole is the fact that most of them live, still observing caste division. That is, all over Romania are scattered gypsies who differ from each other by their belonging to a certain caste. Calderar, hichitor, cherry - respectively, - those that make buckets (as well as other items made of metal), fortune tellers, beggars. They can be easily distinguished from each other even externally, since they either carry their goods and offer them everywhere, or by their behavior betray their occupation and belonging to caste.

The most conspicuous, for example, are the “Cherchetories” or beggars. The rules of their caste require them to live only by begging. If you think that they feel humiliated or deprived of something, then you must say that it is not. This caste traces its origin to antiquity, of which they say that “in those times” they were kings, and their wealth was then taken from them. So now they return it to themselves in such an “unusual” way for the rest of the people. Moreover, this caste (as well as the caste of thieves) believes that all the riches of the land, in fact, belong to them, and they simply return them to themselves. But all the people who do not belong to their caste are “natural,” they are those who do not own their wealth and, in their view, are obliged to return it to them. It must be admitted that the talent of beggars sometimes leads to amazement - these are crippled children and mutilated gypsies, but most of all - their ability to soften the passer-by with their gestures and pity lamentation of the text, which lures money from passers-by. However, this can sometimes be seen in the Moscow metro.

The other caste is the caste of metalworkers. Both precious metals and all kinds of zinc products, for example, as buckets, knives, agricultural tools and much more. There are still those who make cast dishes from aluminum and cast iron.

To this day, you can see gypsies processing gold on the streets of some settlements. And they do it right on the sidewalk, in plain sight of everyone, - skillfully make gold rings, earrings, and other jewelry and immediately offer their goods to passers-by.

Another feature of the Romanian Roma is the external difference between them depending on the area of residence, as well as depending on their ethnicity. For example, “Hungarian” gypsies dress in costumes and wear large broad-brimmed hats, women – colored skirts. In men, it is also mandatory to wear a large mustache. What is more surprising about the Hungarian gypsies is that there are entire villages of red or just blond gypsies. They are more intelligent than the Roma of the rest of Romania. They are less likely to be seen swearing and screaming in plain sight. Female Hungarian gypsies in a subordinate position in relation to men. Often much younger than their husbands.

To describe the diversity of features of the Roma, you will need a monograph. We conclude by saying that despite any political, social or other changes in the society in which Roma live, they always manage to preserve their identity and uniqueness. They always stand out from the rest of the population, both externally and internally. Outwardly - by their behavior, clothing, occupation, inwardly - the desire to preserve their individuality, pride in their national identity, the desire not to lose their human dignity, regardless of the circumstances in which their lives put.