Scattered across every country of Europe yet bound by a common story, the Roma are one of the continent’s most distinctive and most misunderstood peoples. A nation without a state, they carry in their language and traditions the memory of a journey that began a thousand years ago in the Indian subcontinent and led them across the whole of Europe, where they have lived, endured, and enriched the culture of many lands.
This is the story of who the Roma are: where they came from, how they lived, what they believe, and how they preserved a distinct identity through centuries of migration, exclusion, and even genocide. It is a tale of remarkable survival and of a people whose gifts of music, family, and endurance have carried their identity, without a homeland of their own, into the present day.
The Roma on Film
Contents
- Origins
- The Name Lithuania
- The Lithuanian Language
- The Homeland
- The Old Way of Life
- Society and Community
- Religion and Belief
- Traditions
- Crafts and Amber
- Food
- Festivals
- History
- Lithuanians Today
Origins
The Romani people, often known by names they did not choose for themselves, are one of the most widely dispersed peoples of Europe, yet their origins lie far away in the Indian subcontinent. Through the careful study of their language, scholars have shown that the ancestors of the Roma left northern India roughly a thousand years ago, carrying with them a tongue descended from the same Indian roots as Sanskrit.
Exactly why they left is not fully known, but from India these groups moved westward over the centuries, passing through Persia, Armenia, and the Byzantine world, where their language absorbed many words along the way. By the late Middle Ages they had reached the Balkans and were spreading across Europe, arriving as travelling groups whose distant origins were long a mystery to those they met.
The Indian origin of the Roma, hidden for centuries, was uncovered through linguistics, when scholars recognized that the Romani language was clearly related to the languages of northern India. Later study of history and genetics has confirmed this deep connection, tying the Roma to the peoples of the Indian subcontinent from whom they set out so long ago.
From these Indian roots grew a people who, over a thousand years of migration and settlement across Europe and beyond, developed a distinct identity, language, and culture. Scattered among many nations yet bound by common descent and tradition, the Roma became one of the truly transnational peoples of the continent, at home across Europe yet always a nation apart.
The Name Lithuania
The people call themselves Roma, meaning in their language something like men or people, and their language Romani. From this comes the term Romani people, now widely used as the respectful name for the whole community, though it embraces many distinct groups with their own names, such as the Kalderash, the Sinti, the Kale, and others.
For centuries outsiders called them by other names, most commonly a word that arose from the mistaken belief that they had come from Egypt, from which the English term Gypsy derives. Many such names, used by the surrounding peoples, came to carry negative associations, and today Roma or Romani is generally preferred as the name the people themselves have chosen.
The Roma are not a single uniform group but a family of related communities spread across many countries, each shaped by its own history and the lands in which it settled. The Sinti of central Europe, the Kalderash coppersmiths, the Iberian Kale, the Romanichal of Britain, and many others all belong to the wider Romani world while keeping their own particular traditions.
A shared sense of Romani identity, expressed in language, custom, and a common story of origin and migration, binds these groups together across borders. In modern times the adoption of a common flag and anthem, and the marking of an international day, have given voice to this sense of the Roma as one people, a nation without a state, spread across Europe and the world.
The Lithuanian Language
The Romani language is the great key to the history of the Roma, for it was through it that scholars traced their origins to India. An Indo-Aryan language, related to the tongues of northern India and ultimately to Sanskrit, Romani preserves in its very words the long journey of the people who speak it, carrying layers of vocabulary picked up in Persia, Armenia, the Greek world, and the lands of Europe.
Romani is not a single uniform language but a family of dialects, shaped by the many countries in which Romani communities have lived and by contact with local languages. Despite this variety, the dialects share a common core inherited from their Indian origin, and speakers from different regions can often find much in common in their speech.
For most of its history Romani was an oral language, passed down by word of mouth rather than in writing, which helped it survive as a private and unifying bond among the Roma even as they lived scattered among other peoples. In some places, distinct mixed forms arose, such as the Caló of the Iberian Roma, blending Romani vocabulary with the local language.
In modern times there have been growing efforts to write, standardize, teach, and celebrate the Romani language as a mark of identity and pride, and it is increasingly recognized and supported in various countries. As one of the few Indian languages long established in the heart of Europe, Romani is a living link between distant worlds and a treasured heritage of the Roma.
The Homeland
The Roma are unusual among the peoples of Europe in having no homeland or state of their own, for their history is one of migration and dispersal rather than settlement in a single land. Their ancestral homeland lies far away in northern India, from which they departed a thousand years ago, and since then they have made their home across the whole of Europe and beyond.
For much of their history, the true homeland of many Roma was not a place but a way of life, carried with them as they travelled. The horse-drawn wagon, the vardo, became for the travelling groups a home on wheels, a moving hearth that held the family and its belongings along the roads of Europe. For others, settlement in villages and town quarters became the pattern of life.
Today the great majority of Roma live settled lives, concentrated above all in central and southeastern Europe, in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the lands of the former Yugoslavia, Slovakia, and Spain, as well as across western Europe and in the Americas. In many places they form long-established communities, rooted for generations in the towns and regions where they live.
Scattered across so many lands, the Roma have made a homeland of Europe as a whole rather than of any single country. Bound not by a shared territory but by a shared language, descent, and culture, they are a transnational people, at once part of the many nations among whom they live and a distinct nation in their own right, spread across the map of the continent.
The Old Way of Life
The old way of life of many Roma was bound up with travel and with trades that suited a mobile existence, though it is important to remember that not all Roma were travellers and many lived settled lives from an early date. For the travelling groups, the horse-drawn wagon and the seasonal round of work and movement shaped a distinctive world.
Travelling families followed routes and seasons, offering their skills and goods where they were needed, trading horses, mending pots and tools, making baskets and other wares, telling fortunes, and providing music and entertainment at fairs and celebrations. Their crafts and services filled real needs in the rural economies of the past, and they were often awaited at the markets and festivals of the settled world.
Life on the road was governed by strong internal customs and codes, above all ideas of family loyalty, honor, and ritual cleanliness that ordered daily life and set the community apart. Disputes were often settled within the community by its own councils and elders, according to traditional law, keeping order among people who lived largely outside the structures of the surrounding states.
This travelling way of life, romanticized by outsiders and often misunderstood, was in truth a hard and precarious existence, shaped by the need to make a living on the margins and by frequent hostility and exclusion. Over the twentieth century, through both choice and coercion, the great majority of Roma became settled, yet the memory and values of that older way of life remain woven into Romani identity.
Society and Community
Romani society is built above all around the family, and strong bonds of kinship and loyalty lie at the very heart of the culture. The extended family, rather than the individual, is the basic unit, and obligations to relatives, respect for elders, and the raising of children within the close world of the family are values of central importance.
Beyond the family, the Roma are organized into many distinct groups and clans, often defined by descent, traditional occupation, region, and dialect, such as the coppersmith Kalderash or the many other named communities across Europe. Each has its own customs and identity, while all share in the wider sense of belonging to the Romani people.
Traditional Romani life was ordered by strong internal codes of custom and honor, including detailed ideas of ritual purity and pollution that governed conduct, and by systems of settling disputes through the community’s own councils and respected elders. These customs helped preserve the identity and cohesion of communities living scattered among other peoples.
Throughout their history the Roma have lived as a distinct people on the margins of the societies around them, often facing exclusion and prejudice, which reinforced the importance of the community as a source of belonging and protection. Family celebrations, above all weddings, are great occasions that bring the community together and display its traditions in their fullest and most joyful form.
Religion and Belief
In matters of religion the Roma have characteristically adopted the faith of the lands in which they settled, so that Romani communities include Orthodox and Catholic Christians, Protestants, and Muslims, according to the countries where they live. Yet they have often given these faiths a distinctive Romani coloring, blending them with their own customs and devotions.
Whatever the outward faith, Romani religious life has traditionally been marked by deep devotion, by the honoring of saints and holy places, and by practices woven into the customs of the family and the community. Ideas of fate, blessing, and the sacred order of life run through Romani culture alongside the formal religion of the surrounding society.
Among the most famous expressions of Romani devotion is the great annual pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in southern France, where Roma from across Europe gather to honor their patron, Saint Sara, in a celebration that joins faith with a joyful reunion of the community. Such gatherings are among the most important events in the Romani calendar.
In recent times, evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity has spread widely among the Roma in many countries, giving rise to a strong movement of Romani churches and preachers that has become an important force in community life. Across all these forms, religion remains for many Roma a source of identity, comfort, and belonging, expressed in a distinctively Romani way.
Traditions
The traditions of the Roma are rich in music, dance, storytelling, and the customs of family life, and they have had an influence on the wider culture of Europe out of all proportion to the numbers of the people. Above all, the Roma are renowned as musicians, and their art has shaped the sound of many lands.
Romani musicians have been central to the musical traditions of much of central and eastern Europe, playing at the celebrations of others and shaping styles from the cafés of Hungary to the villages of the Balkans, while in Spain the Roma were the great creators of flamenco, the passionate art of song, guitar, and dance. This gift for music is a deep source of Romani pride.
Family celebrations, above all weddings, are the great occasions of Romani tradition, marked by feasting, music, dancing, and elaborate custom, and by the gathering of the wider community in its finest dress. Storytelling, proverbs, and a rich oral lore carry the wisdom, humor, and memory of the people from one generation to the next.
Traditional customs of hospitality, of honor, and of the marking of the great moments of life, birth, marriage, and death, remain strong, and the values of family and community run through them all. Passed down largely by word and example rather than in writing, these living traditions of music, celebration, and family are the beating heart of Romani culture.
Crafts and Amber
The crafts of the Roma were traditionally suited to a mobile life and to the trades in which they specialized, and in these they often achieved great skill. Metalworking stood at the heart of many Romani livelihoods, and the coppersmiths, above all the Kalderash whose very name means those who make cauldrons, were famous for making and mending pots, kettles, and vessels of copper and other metals.
Related trades in iron and metal, from the mending of tools to the work of the smith, were widely practiced, and Romani craftsmen served the needs of the rural economies through which they travelled. The trading and care of horses was another traditional Romani skill, and Roma were long known as expert dealers and handlers of horses at the fairs of Europe.
Other crafts suited to travelling life flourished as well, including the making of baskets, wooden wares, brushes, and other goods sold from door to door and at markets, and various forms of small trade and repair. These crafts filled real needs and were the economic foundation of many Romani communities before the changes of the modern age.
Alongside these practical trades, the Roma carried the arts of music and entertainment as a kind of craft in themselves, offering song, dance, and performance at fairs and celebrations. As the old economies changed and mass production replaced hand trades, many traditional Romani crafts declined, but the skills and the memory of them remain part of the heritage of the people.
Food
The food of the Roma, like so much of their culture, reflects both their own traditions and the many lands in which they have lived, so that Romani cooking varies widely from country to country while keeping certain shared features. For the travelling groups of the past, cooking was often done outdoors over an open fire, a practical art suited to life on the road.
Hearty stews and dishes cooked in a single pot over the fire were well suited to this life, making good use of available ingredients, and such one-pot meals remain associated with Romani cooking. Meat, when it could be had, was prized, and dishes were often rich and generously spiced, shaped by the tastes of the surrounding cultures.
In the settled communities of different countries, Romani cuisine absorbed the ingredients and dishes of the local kitchen while giving them a distinctive character, so that the food of the Roma in the Balkans differs from that of Spain or central Europe. Bread, stews, and dishes shared at family gatherings hold an important place.
Above all, food among the Roma is bound up with hospitality and with the great family celebrations, when tables are laden and the community gathers to eat, drink, and make music together. The sharing of food is an expression of the deep value placed on family and community, and feasts mark the weddings and festivals that are the high points of Romani life.
Festivals
The festivals of the Roma center above all on the great celebrations of family life and on gatherings that bring the scattered community together, along with the religious feasts of the lands in which they live. These occasions, filled with music, dance, and feasting, are the moments when Romani identity and joy are expressed most fully.
The most famous Romani gathering is the annual pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in southern France, where Roma from across Europe come each spring to honor Saint Sara, carrying her image to the sea in a celebration that unites religious devotion with a great reunion of families and communities. It is among the most important events in the Romani year.
Weddings are the supreme festivals of Romani life, often lasting for days and celebrated with lavish feasting, music, dancing, and elaborate custom, drawing together the wider family and community in their finest dress. Such celebrations display the traditions of the people in their fullest and most exuberant form and are central to the bonds of the community.
In modern times the Roma have also marked their identity through International Roma Day on the eighth of April, established to celebrate Romani culture and to raise awareness of the history and situation of the people. Together with the many local and religious festivals observed in different countries, these occasions express the vitality and the enduring togetherness of the Romani people.
History
The history of the Roma in Europe is a long story of both remarkable cultural survival and terrible suffering. Arriving from the East in the late Middle Ages, the Roma were at first often received with curiosity, but suspicion and hostility soon followed, and across the centuries they faced expulsion, harsh laws, and persecution in many lands.
In some regions the treatment of the Roma was especially cruel. In the principalities that later became Romania, many Roma were held in slavery for centuries, an institution not finally abolished until the nineteenth century, while elsewhere they faced laws aimed at forcing settlement, assimilation, or removal, and constant pressure from the societies around them.
The darkest chapter came in the twentieth century, when the Roma were targeted for destruction by Nazi Germany and its allies during the Second World War. In the genocide the Roma call the Porajmos, or the Devouring, hundreds of thousands of Romani men, women, and children were murdered, a catastrophe that devastated communities across Europe and is central to modern Romani memory.
Since the war, the Roma have continued to face discrimination and exclusion in many countries, yet these years have also seen the rise of a Romani civil rights movement, the growth of Romani political and cultural organizations, and greater recognition of the Roma as a European people. The adoption of a flag, an anthem, and an international day reflects this growing assertion of a shared Romani identity and dignity.
Lithuanians Today
Today the Roma are among the largest minorities in Europe, numbering in the millions and living in almost every country of the continent, with the greatest concentrations in central and southeastern Europe. The great majority now live settled lives, in cities, towns, and villages, and they form long-established communities in the lands where they have lived for generations.
The situation of the Roma in the modern world is marked by striking contrasts. Many Roma have achieved success and full participation in the life of their countries, as artists, professionals, politicians, and citizens of every walk of life, while a great many others continue to face poverty, discrimination, poor housing, and exclusion from education and opportunity.
The struggle for the rights, dignity, and inclusion of the Roma has become an important cause in Europe, taken up by Romani activists and organizations and by international bodies, even as prejudice remains a stubborn problem. At the same time, a Romani cultural and political awakening has brought new pride in the language, history, and identity of the people.
Through centuries of migration, persecution, and survival, the Roma have preserved a distinct identity, language, and culture across the whole of Europe without ever having a state of their own. Bound by family, tradition, and a shared story reaching back to distant India, and celebrated for their gifts of music and endurance, the Roma remain one of the most remarkable and truly European of the continent’s peoples.
Related Peoples of the Region
- The Croats
- The Bosniaks
- The Macedonians
- The Albanians
- The Catalans
- The Maltese
- The Bretons
- The Galicians
