International Romani Day 2023 in Nerja
Nerja celebrates the International Romani Day
Here is the essential information about the International Romani Day in Nerja:
- A few words about Nerja
- The dates of this celebration
- The programme of this festival
- A few words about the Gypsy people
- some useful links
Note: all photos were taken last year in 2022, during this festival.
A few words about Nerja
Nerja is located in Axarquia, in the province of Malaga.
To find out more about the Pearl of the Costa del Sol, click on the link: Nerja.
Dates of this festival
The International Day of the Gypsy People will be celebrated on 31 March and 1 April 2023. The official date for this celebration is 8 April each year, but this year the date has been brought forward due to Holy Week.
The programme of the celebrations
Below is a short video of the 2022 show:
31 March from 19:00 – at the Museum of Nerja – :
- Short film “Proud Roma” by Pablo Vega at the Museum of Nerja
- Painting exhibition
- Music, dance and song show
1st April :
- 18:30 flashmob in the Plaza del huerto de la Monja.
- 19:00, at the Nerja cultural centre: speech on the gypsy people and singing of the hymn “Djelem, Djelem
- 19:30, gala of flamenco artists in the cultural centre of Nerja
A few words about the gypsy people
This day in Nerja is an opportunity to remember the history of the Gypsy people
April 8 is International Roma Day. This date commemorates the first World Gypsy Congress held in London in 1971. They became a people of Europe in their own right on that day. The only particularity is that this people has a flag and an anthem but no territory, border or country.
Another short video of this celebration in Nerja:
On this day in 1971, the flag and anthem of the gypsies were instituted.
In the following link: listen to “Djelem, djelem”, the anthem of the Roma people
Djelem, Djelem or Dzelem, Dzelem means ‘I walked, I walked’.
Roma people is the official name
This name has its origin in the Sinti language (a language resulting from the mixture of Romanian and German. The romani cel (which gave rise to the name romanichel in the past) and which means the people of Roma.
The history of the Roma people
They are a people who left North India about 1000 years ago and arrived in Europe around the 14th century. They settled in Spain in the 15th century.
In the 20th century, they were also subjected to the atrocities of the Nazi regime and suffered a genocide. This genocide has a name “Samudaripen” which means “total murder” in Romani language. It is estimated that 50% of the Roma people were exterminated.
Roma, gypsy, bohemian
In Europe, the Roma people will go by many names depending on their location:
- In Eastern Europe, they will be called: Roma
- In Central Europe, they are called : Bohemian
- In Great Britain, they will be called: gipsy
- In Western Europe, it will be called: manouche or sinté
- In Spain and the south of France it is called gitan/gitano.
The Gypsy language is called Calo. It is a mixture of Romance languages.
Some more photos of this wonderful show:
Some useful links
Here is a great car rental agency in Andalusia and more specifically at Malaga airport : book a rental car.
Find out all about the most spectacular fair of the year in the province of Málaga: The Malaga Fair
And finally, here are some other experiences to do Malaga province :
Discover other great places in Andalucia in the Andalucia blog pages.
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