Gypsy wedding

[topum]

I am going back home to London for two days tomorrow. After that I will hop over to Copenhagen for my friend's birthday party and then I am coming back to Moldova, we still have a lot of exciting work to do here.

Today we got invited for a Gypsy wedding. The wedding will take place in July in the town of Soroca, which is home to a large Roma community. They live separately from Moldovans there on a "Gypsy Hill" in the town's centre where they build enormous and bizarre houses. There is almost no intermarriage between Roma and Moldovans. We were told that the groom and the bride will be really young, which is traditional for this community. I tried to research this a bit, but not too much, I like to be surprised when I visit places and not know everything in advance. But below is a taster for you (just first one minute is enough). Yes, the guy you see from the beginning of the video is the groom and the girl is his bride. I bet this little dude will be the coolest when he goes back to school after this wedding and will have all the attention of his buddies to tell them about all the things they really wanted to know.

And of course I will be back with pictures from the Gypsy Hill.

Comments

[beautesauvage13.livejournal.com]

That kid can't be much more then 13 yrs old..They call that Jail bate over here. Here you have to be atleast 18 to get married. 

Athena

[topum.livejournal.com]

I know. I was told that that kid is likely to have two or three of his own by the time he is 18. That's they way things work in that community apparently.

[beautesauvage13.livejournal.com]

Awful lot of responsibility to be taking on that young.  He shouldn't be having to worry about things like being a father at 13.  Ha! Reminds me of a Meat Loaf song.  The one where the guy is trying to get lucky with this girl and she asks him to promise he'll love her forever.  He agrees just so he can get lucky.  Then it ends with the two of them married and he's praying for the end of time. 

Athena

[topum.livejournal.com]

I think they live with extended families there and the kids are raised by a crowd of grandparents, aunts, etc in addition to the parents.
One of my brothers became a father a week before he turned 16. We Scandinavians go for it early compared to the rest of the world apparently. I think Iceland has the lowest average age for the loss of virginity in the world at around 15.3 years. My parents also started having children very early and they also ended having them (us!) very late so we have an uncle who is younger than his nephew in the family, ha ha.

[beautesauvage13.livejournal.com]

It's good to have such a close family like that, here if a teen ends up pregnant they are often left alone to deal with it all.

A father at 16? Wow yes you Scandinavians do start young. My mother married my father when she was 19 he was 25. They had me when my mother was 21. I've three younger brothers, one that's a year and a half younger the other 2, eight and seven yrs younger then me. I was the oldest and only girl.
Athena

[topum.livejournal.com]

Three brothers and you are the only sister, this is cool. We don't have sisters unfortunately, my parents had only boys. They were constantly trying for a girl and kept trying until as late as was possible but even that last one turned out to be a boy, ha ha. A father at 16 is an exception and very early everywhere of course. My brother just was spending too much time in Iceland, ha ha.

[beautesauvage13.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's cool being the only girl and the oldest until you get stuck babysitting your younger brothers lol. 

What is odd one of my father's brothers had 4 girls and one boy.  It's like they were sort of mirroring eachother. 

Iceland girls can be tempting to a young boy. 

Athena

[found-world.livejournal.com]

Whoaaa... A few minutes ago, a friend was telling me about watching something called Gypsy Wedding, some show, I think, and she described 100 lb wedding dresses. Funny coincidence.

[topum.livejournal.com]

A funny coincidence indeed.

[wearwoolf.livejournal.com]

That was, educational! I didn't realise they married that young! Or that there was some sort of age gap between the boys and girls!

Wowza.

[topum.livejournal.com]

Another interesting and unusual thing is that when there is an age gap the bride is older than the groom in most cases not vice versa.

[wearwoolf.livejournal.com]

That was my next question! And I wondered if some of the couples that approached the bride and groom were husband and wife? If yes, the age difference is so stark! O_O

I miss KBH!!!! Safe travels, as always!

[topum.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And I miss Asia already.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I'm very envious of your travels and appreciative that you take the time to document them. :-)

[topum.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I am glad to be able to share them with you ).

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

That's really fascinating. I always wonder about how the people feel about it. Of course, can be very different for someone from outside the culture and the country to really relate when things are really different. Very much looking forward to your pics and stories :)

[topum.livejournal.com]

It is business as usual for them there apparently. I was told that the idea was to catch the boys just before they become restless about having sex and set them up with a wife so that when the time comes they "don't have to do a lot of stupid things as the hot blooded gypsy boys definitely would and waste a lot of time but already have a family setup". I am not sure if this is true, I heard it from a non-Roma guy here. It made me laugh though. And a little sad too. )