Yearly Archives: 2016
Romany New Year’s Eve Love Divination
To divine whether you will marry in the New Year, try throwing a shoe or boot into a willow tree. If it gets caught in the branches, the answer is yes. You are allowed to throw the shoe no more than nine times because, in spells, nine symbolizes completion.
From: The Good Spell Book
Attracting Romance
If you wish to attract romance to your life, choose a night when the moon is new or full. Stand outside next to water – a stream, a well, a river, or even a garden pond.
Holding a rose or blossom from a fruit tree in your left hand, and a sweet apple cut in half in your right hand, recite the following:
Here is a rosebud pink and sweet.
Here is an apple ready to eat.
Here is a flower ready to open.
Here is an apple, true love’s token.
Here is a rose seeking a thorn,
Here is a love yet to be born.
Come hands, come truth, come thorn.
Throw half the apple over your left shoulder without looking back. Stick your flower into the ground, and eat the other half of the apple.
Found in: Gypsy Magic by Patrinella Cooper
Gypsy Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs peeled pumpkin, cut into chunks
- 4 1/2 cups of strong white bread flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 oz fresh yeast
Instructions:
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pumpkin. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender. Drain well, reserve the liquid. Sieve the pumpkin into a bowl and beat to a puree. Cool until just warm, and then mix with the flour and salt. Dissolve the yeast in 6 tablespoons of the cooking liquid and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes until frothy. Pour into the flour mixture and mix well to form a firm dough . If the mixture is too dry add a little more cooking liquid.
Knead well until smooth, place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Knock back the dough, knead lightly, and shape into ball. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave for about 1 hour until well risen.
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Using a sharp knife make a circular incision around the top of the ball about 2 inches from the edge. Place on a baking tray and cook for 45-50 minutes until deep golden and cooked through.
Found at: Journey Folki
Griddle Cakes – Gypsy Style
Ingredients:
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of ground mixed/pumpkin spices
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons shortening or lard
- 3 tablespoons unrefined light brown muscovado sugar
- 4 tablespoons currants
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- Sugar for sprinkling
Instructions:
Sift the flour, salt, and spices into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter and shortening until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add the sugar, currants, and lemon peel. Beat the egg and milk together and add to the dry ingredients to form a soft dough. Roll out lightly on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick and cut into 2 inch rounds. Cook on a hot floured griddle or heavy frying pan until golden on both sides. Sprinkle with sugar and serve hot and fresh.
From: Journey Folki
Vampire Pumpkins
Eat pumpkins quickly, lest they turn into vampires. People aren’t the only beings who can become vampiric. According to Balkan Romani folk traditions, hard-shelled, seedy fruits and vegetables can become vampires too. Although melons and squashes can also be vampiric, pumpkins – maybe because of halloween associations – have garnered the most attention.
The potential vampire is activated when a pumpkin is kept longer than ten days or not consumed before Christmas. Leaving it out all night exposed to a full moon may activate transformation, too. Not every pumpkin is guaranteed to turn into a vampire just as not every corpse is expected to rise. Vampire pumpkins betray themselves by making growling noises or developing red, vaguely blood-like splotches on their shells.
In general, there’s no need to worry about vampire pumpkins very much. As they don’t possess teeth, they can’t cause sudden, immediate harm. They are, however, unhealthy to keep around as they gradually absorb psychic energy from those around them. If a person is debilitated with low energy and a weak aura, such pumpkins can eventually cause damage, although it is a slow process. Vampire pumpkins also attract malevolent spirits.
Plunge vampiric pumpkins (or other suspect produce) into boiling water to kill them. Then break them into pieces and discard. (The traditional weapon for breaking them is a branch or handmade broom, which is then also discarded.)
Origin of the Name ‘Gypsy’
When the Roma arrived in Europe from the East, given their dark skin and eyes, they were believed to be from Turkey or Egypt. The word gypsy is derived from the word Egypt (gyp) and the people just called them gypsies. At that time the word did not have a negative connotation, but only identified the group as a people.
Also called travelers in many countries, they were nomadic people who rarely set down roots, traveling in wagons from place to place—always on the move—and sleeping in tents until the mid-1900s.
Gembétsa
Get kidney suet from the butcher and grind or chop it very fine after removing all skin and blood. Knead this with wheat flour, salt, pepper, baking soda, and parsley and enough water to make a stiff dry dough. In another pan fry bacon or sausage meat until quite crispy and break into small pieces. Shape the dough (about the size of a golf ball) around the fried bacon or sausage, sealing the ball. Drop into the soup you will serve with it and let cook. They will swell up about three times bigger.
From: Journey Folki
A Gypsy Love Song
Gypsy Love Song
Tropical night, Malaria moon
Dying stars of the silver screen
She danced that famous Gypsy dance
With a hole in her tambourine
I was young enough and dumb enough
I swallowed down my Mickey Finn
She’d hijacked a few hearts all right
I went into a tailspin
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t stir it up again
I put my arm around her waist
Says she, young man, you’re getting warm
The room was going somewhere without me
And she laughed as she read my palm
Stillborn love, passionate dreams, pitiful greed
And the silver tongues of the tinker girls,
Who throw their book of life at you
But don’t know how to read
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t stir it up again
She was third generation Transylvanian
I was the seventh son of a seventh son
I begged the band don’t play that tune
Please don’t beguine the begun
When I awoke, she’d cut and run
She stole my blueprints and my change
Just a horseshoe and a note on the bed
And all it said was–strange
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t sing me, don’t sing me, don’t sing me
No more gypsy love songs
Don’t stir it up again
~I found this little song in one of my files,
the music wasn’t with it and I don’t know the author.
Ederlezi
Ederlezi is a popular traditional folk song of the Romani minority in the Balkans (former Yugoslavia). Goran Bregovic’s version was used for the movie, Time of the Gypsies, actually made the song famous.
The song got its name after Ederlezi (otherwise known as Đurđevdan (Ђурђевдан) in Serbian, sometimes transcribed as Djurdjevdan).
Ederlezi is the Gypsy name for the Bulgarian and Serbian Feast of Saint George. It’s celebrated on the 6th May, a holiday signaling the beginning of spring, occurring approximately 40 days after the spring equinox. This Spring festival is especially celebrated by Roma people around the former Yugoslavia (and elsewhere around the world), regardless of religious affiliation.
I love this version, it’s sung by Preslava Peicheva – finalist in Music Idol Bulgaria.
Lyrics in Romani:
Sa me amala oro khelena
Oro khelena, dive kerena
Sa o Roma daje
Sa o Roma babo babo
Sa o Roma o daje
Sa o Roma babo babo
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
Sa o Roma daje
Sa o Roma babo, e bakren chinen
A me, chorro, dural beshava
Romano dive, amaro dive
Amaro dive, Ederlezi
E devado babo, amenge bakro
Sa o Roma babo, e bakren chinen
Sa o Roma babo babo
Sa o Roma o daje
Sa o Roma babo babo
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
Sa o Roma daje
English Translation:
All my friends are dancing the oro
Dancing the oro, celebrating the day
All the Roma, mommy
All the Roma, dad, dad
All the Roma, oh mommy
All the Roma, dad, dad
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
All the Roma, mommy
All the Roma, dad, slaughter lambs
But me, poor, I am sitting apart
A Romany day, our day
Our day, Ederlezi
They give, Dad, a lamb for us
All the Roma, dad, slaughter lambs
All the Roma, dad, dad
All the Roma, oh mommy
All the Roma, dad, dad
Ederlezi, Ederlezi
All the Roma, mommy
The former Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme released a cover version of this song in Serbo-Croatian using the same melody, but with very different lyrics. Under the title “Đurđevdan je a ja nisam s onom koju volim” which is featured on their album Ćiribiribela from 1988.
Bijelo Dugme’s Lyrics:
Proljeće na moje rame slijeće
Đurđevak zeleni
Đurđevak zeleni
Svima osim meni
Drugovi odoše a ja osta
Nema zvijezde danice
Nema zvijezde danice
Moje saputnice
Ej kome sada moja draga
Na đurđevak miriše
Na đurđevak miriše
Meni nikad više
Evo zore evo zore
Bogu da se pomolim
Evo zore evo zore
Ej đurđevdan je
A ja nisam s onom koju volim
Njeno ime neka se spominje
Svakog drugog dana
Svakog drugog dana
Osim đurđevdana
English Translation:
Spring is landing on my shoulder
Lily of the valley is sprouting
Lily of the valley is sprouting
For everyone, except for me
The friends are gone, but I’ve stayed
There is no Morning Star
There is no Morning Star
My fellow-traveler
Hey, to whom does my darling now
Smells of the lily of the valley
Smells of the lily of the valley
To me never again
Here comes the sunrise,
here comes the sunrise
So I can pray to God
Here comes the sunrise,
here comes the sunrise
Hey it’s St George’s day
And I am not with the one I love
Let her name be mentioned
On every other day
On every other day
Except on St George’s day.
And here is a version with Greek lyrics, titled “Tou Ai Giorgi” (“Saint George’s”, Greek: “Του Αη Γιώργη”), was also recorded by Bregović together with Greek singer Alkistis Protopsalti in 1991. The Greek lyrics are credited to Lina Nikolakopoulou.
Lyrics in Greek:
Απ’ τους ώμους να, η Άνοιξη περνά,
γύρω φτερουγίζει,
ξεχνάει εμένα.
Μέρα της χαράς ποια ζωή φοράς;
Δρόμο δρόμο παίρνεις
χωρίς εμένα.
Του ουρανού πουλιά πάρτε με αγκαλιά
το βουνό γεμίζει κεριά αναμμένα
Nα κι η Πούλια ξημερώνει το Θεό παρακαλώ
μα το φως που δυναμώνει
δε μου φέρνει
δε μου φέρνει
‘κείνον που αγαπώ.
Το όνομα του ανθός, ευωδιάς βυθός,
πείτε στα κορίτσια να μην το λένε
μέρα σαν κι αυτή στ’ Άη Γιωργιού τ’ αφτί,
που όλα τα τραγούδια για αγάπη κλαίνε.
English Translation:
Look over the shoulders, spring passes,
flutters all around,
it forgets me
Day of joy, which life do you carry?
Υou take the road
without me.
Birds of sky, take me in your embrace
the mountain fills with lit candles
There it is the morning star, it’s breaking, I beg God
but the light which becomes stronger
it doesn’t bring me
it doesn’t bring me
the man that I love.
His name (is) flower, depth of perfume
tell to the girls not to say that
On the day like this one, at Saint George’s ear
where all the songs weep for love.
Source: Wikipedia
The Time of the Gypsies
Time of the Gypsies
The film revolves around Perhan, a Gypsy teenager with telekinetic powers and his passage from boy to man that starts in a little village in Yugoslavia and that ends in the criminal underworld of Milan.
At the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, Emir Kusturica won the Best Director Award and the film was also nominated for a Palme d’Or (Golden Palm). At the 1991 Guldbagge awards in Sweden, the movie won the award for Best Foreign Film. In addition, Time of the Gypsies was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1990 César Awards in France.
Here’s the trailer for the movie:
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I think it's time to go shopping... maybe even buy some really cool stuff at my online shops!!