羅姆人（吉普賽人）不是起源于羅馬尼亞。像許多人認為的他們的根不是在印度。很多人認為，他們來自埃及。在十八世紀后期學者們的證詞表明，吉普賽人來自印度北部。來自西澳大利亞大學的Lub Kalaydjieva教授和他的團隊在歐洲做了一個八到一千萬人的吉普賽人的DNA研究。他們有十年經驗從事吉普賽遺傳學研究。他們發現，羅馬尼人（吉普賽人）的起源是從印度來的。另一個跡象表明來自印度的吉普賽人的語言與印度語和梵語之間有相似性，如象數詞、親緣關系的稱呼、身體各部位的名稱和音樂等這類的詞語。

傳統上，每個吉普賽人的家庭或家族都有一個謀生技能并代代相傳。吉普賽人都知道這些技能就是他們的技術行業。馬販子和馬育種者是他們中的一員。他們可以診斷患疾病的馬并找到解決的辦法，以及換馬蹄鐵。他們為自己起了一個很好的名字，高超技藝的鐵匠。這是一個最古老的和主要的吉普賽人的交易。今天沒有很多吉普賽人是致力于鍛造行業，而是制作如燭臺，配件，窗格和許多其他藝術品。

Roma (Gypsies) are not originating from Romania. Like many people assume instead their roots are in India. Many people believed that Gypsies came from Egypt. In the second half of the 18th century evidence from scholars shows that Gypsies come from northern India. Professor Lub Kalaydjieva of the University of Western Australia and his team did a DNA study of eight to ten million people in Europe known as Gypsies. They have ten years experience studying Romani genetics. They discovered that Romani (Gypsies) origins come from India. Another indication shows that Gypsies come from India is similarities between Indian language, Sanskrt. Words like, numerals and kinships terms, names of body parts, music and others.

Traditionally, each Romani family or clan has a trade or profession which is followed and passed on from generation to generation. One of the things Romani are known for are of their skilled trades. Horse dealers and horse breeders are one of them. They could diagnose the illnesses of horses and find ways to heal them. As well as changing horses shoes. They establish a very well name for themselves, being very skilled blacksmiths. This was one of the oldest and the main Romani trades. Today not many Romani are committed themselves blacksmithing but rather making such as candle holders, mountings, latticework and many other artistic object.

Coppersmith is another profession they have mastered and even nowadays they still make pots and tine caldrons. In Romania, Balkan and Hungary and other parts of Europe these days they still practice the wood carving profession they brought with them from India. Carving utensils like spoons and troughs for people that are in need of them. A spoon maker in Romania and Balkan is called Lingurar. Croatia and Hungary they have a different name for a spoon maker, called Bejas. Among other trades such as; leather workers, bear and snake trainers, sharpening knives, making unfired bricks from clay, musician, farmers and other trades they had to master to make a living. It seems surprising for some of us to know that some Romani are educated and have real good professions. There are some among us today that have established a well career for themselves such as; doctors, lawyers, car mechanics, computer programmers and so on.#p#分頁標題#e#

One of the Romani traditions is to get married at the age fifteen. To distinguish between non married and married women is to notice that married women have their head covered with a cloth called “Batic”. The Batic (head-kerchief) represents the symbol of married women. The first step to get married is for the boy's parents to send a messenger to the girl's parent's house with all kinds of gifts. Typically, the girl's parents receive wine and money. Once the messenger arrives at the house he confronts the girl's father and lets him know who he was sending by. Asking him if he approves of his daughters marriage. Once he approves the wedding than he informs Council. The Council is the older man in the community. The girl's father asks the council if they approve as well. If they do, than the messenger has to offer to buy all the people in the community drinks. To settle the wedding day all the boy's parents relatives has to accompany them to the girl's house, accept he boy who gets married. In the Roma community there are some strict rules that it must be fallowed for the marriage to go on.

•If the father of the bride is not wealthy, he has right to demand money for his daughter. It all depends on the beauty of the bride. If his quantity is not met, than he has the right to call off the wedding.
•If the father of the bride is wealthy, he doesn't have the right to inquire for any money.
•Normally upscale people stick with their own kind. They wed their kids with a wealthy family.
•On no account a poor man will ever ask for “bori” (daughter in law) from a well-off man;
•In some cases the man's poor daughter gets married with a wealthy man only if the boy finds her very attractive.
•The future in-laws negotiates the girl's contributions before the completion of the engagement.
The following are the normal gifts that the girl gets from the future in-laws:

•50 skirts of 5 m long each
•50 aprons of 2 m long each
•20 skirts of 3 m long each
•50 handkerchiefs
•50 shirts
•Three large pillows of 1m stuffed with goose feathers
•A big necklace with gold coins
The smallest necklace has ten golden coins on it. Gradually the necklace gets bigger with gold coins depending of the wealth of the bride's father. Not many times you will see a necklace reach 100 golden coins. Other contributions may be presented such as; various cooking pots, plates, carpets, furniture, and so on. It is the mother of the bride obligation to give her daughter everything that is needed for her new home.

For the first day of the wedding, one woman from the bride's side and one from groom's side are to help dress the bride with her white dress. Not just any woman can be picked from any sides. They had to have the following criteria's; not to be married more the once, she had to be a virgin on her wedding, be wealthy, hard worker, have kids and have unity in her family. The wedding lasts minimum of 3 days to a week eating, drinking and dancing. In this day and age, some Rroma enclose their weddings at restaurant having two hundred to three hundred guests. All the wedding guests give gifts to the newly-wed. Once the wedding is done the bride has to cover her head with a scarf. The only person she is permitted to show her hair is to her husband. These traditions are practiced within many Rroman, but unfortunately in big towns and cities slowly are disappearing.#p#分頁標題#e#

Another Roma tradition they have is baptism. Once a woman knows she is pregnant she informs her husband and other women in her clan. She gets isolated and taken care of only by the women. Normally, the pregnancy takes place in someone else's tent, trailer or house so their own home doesn't become sinful. After two weeks or three the baptism takes place. The child is purified by the water at the baptism. Only after the ceremony, people then are allowed to say the child's name and take any pictures of the child.

Is in it extraordinary that majority of us never heard of the Romani Holocaust? Is it because it was not brought to our attention like the Jewish Holocaust? Maybe the education in school has a small part to do with it or the mass media. We all know about the Jewish Holocaust one way or another. The Holocaust started between 1933 to 1945 when Adolf Hitler was in power, and annihilating of more than six million Jews. Jews were the main target but besides them another 5.5 millions of others such as Romani, Sinti, homosexuals, and others that were against Nazi regime, were mass murdered. History shows that Gypsies were hated and persecuted as much as the Jews. In 1935 a new Law came in effect called “Nuremberg Law”. This Law was made to forbid any Gypsies marriages with the white people. January of 1940 at Buchenwald a concentration camp. A tragic month, were two hundred and fifty Romani kids are used as experiment the cyanide gas crystal. August 2nd and 3rd of 1944, it was one of the horrifying days of the Romani history, were several thousand Romani were massacred at the Zigeunerlager in Auschwtiz-Birkenau concentration camp. The number of Romani massacres its unknown because no documentation were found or made. Scholars estimated to be between 250,000 to 500,000 thousand, but it could be more. Not many survived as prisoners of war. If they wouldn't die from starvation, they would they from diseases or brutality. If not killed from medical experiments, they would die from poisonous gas or execution. Nazis developed a system to speed up the process of the mass elimination. They made six more extermination centers by which they could mass murder people by gas and body disposal threw cremating their bodies. It is sadly to say, that 70% to 80% of the Romani population had been annihilated by the Nazi regime by the end of the war in 1945.

There are more than twelve million Roma located in many countries around the world. Unfortunately, it is hard know the exact numbers of Roma population in the world. Due to the discrimination people fear to disclose their true identity as Romani.

Romani people have been discriminated throughout history and still nowadays their situation it has not gotten any better than before. They are not given the equal opportunity to advance in our society. Most of us do not know very much about Romani traditions, culture, and history. Therefore, most of the stereotypes comes from the stories and the mass media that we acknowledge. The discrimination that's happening all around the world but mostly in Europe. This has stopped Romani people to get access to jobs, social security systems, services and housing. One incident of many that happened in Czech Republic that was published on CBC News site. When a man at the age of 17 in Czech Republic, walking along his home got confronted by prejudice group of skinheads. Threaten him by saying today he will die. He was thrown on the ground and insolated and beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized for a week. Now living in Canada in Hamilton, Ontario at age 24 he his happy not to worry that someone will jump him when walking down the street. Another discrimination that continues to happen in Europe like Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia and others countries. To have separate schools only for Romani children. In other words, they are branded as “Gypsy schools”. Where there is low standard of teaching and poor material conditions. Government's needs to change police to end educational segregation of Romani. Romani children need to receive equal opportunities in education as the non Romani students so they can achieve the same or better goals in life. Without the right education, they are not able to succeed in our society. With a good education they will have a well job that they can support themselves and their families.#p#分頁標題#e#