The whole idea of having to sell and buy girls and women is of course completely unacceptable from a politically correct standpoint.

The whole idea of having to sell and buy girls and women is of course completely unacceptable from a politically correct standpoint. Nonetheless, the Brides’ Fair at Mogila hardly ever results in a real “deal” with this kind. It really is however really colourful, a complete great deal of fun and a must-see for visitors and residents of southern Bulgaria.

The young Gypsy girls choose Western-style garments

Every Todorovden, or St Todor’s Day, Gypsies through the Kalaydzhii clan collect regarding the dirty soccer pitch associated with village of Mogila, near Stara Zagora. Extended families arrive from all over in ramshackle automobiles which range from horse-drawn carts to.

Many of them visited satisfy buddies and loved ones. The Kalaydzhii are itinerant craftsmen who reside in tiny, crowded communities within the villages around Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora and Karnobat, and invest the hot months travelling round the nation shopping for trade. They hold two primary gatherings per year – on 15 August, the feast of this presumption, near Bachkovo Monastery, as well as the Brides’ Fair on Todorovden, a moveable feast from the very first Saturday of Lent.

Moustached and dressed up in their conventional three-piece suits, bowler caps or fabric caps on the minds, the old men stay at tables next to the shining barbecues where sweaty vendors grill kebapcheta, chatting with buddies and beer that is drinking. Their wives munch sunflower seeds and gossip with family relations, whilst the young children set you back and fro with cheeks pink from candyfloss and hands sticky from toffee oranges.

The attire that is traditional kept for their grandmothers

The Brides’ Fair, nonetheless, is more than simply community get-together. The Kalaydzhii, like the majority of Gypsy clans in Bulgaria, choose marriages to occur between people in the team. Their vagabond (no pun meant) lives, nonetheless, make it burdensome for young adults to meet up a partner, thus the fair – a huge, colourful, crowded meeting of “available” girls and teenagers.

Objectives are high. The guys’ families have actually started to find a new, beautiful, hard-working, obedient and bride that is preferably virgin. Girls’ families have actually appeared to produce at the entire community just how young, breathtaking, hard-working, obedient and – needless to say! – virtuous their daughters and grand-daughters are, and also to find for them a good lad, preferably with a company of his very own.

Teenage boys in brand brand new jeans and hoodies or inside their track suits that are best, that are extremely popular now in the nation regardless of ethnicity of these wearers, stroll all over pitch in little packages. They scan the girls, trade reviews on their appearance and do their better to look cool, strutting like roosters prepared for a fight and sunflower that is spitting with hauteur, just as if they owned the entire world.

The girls and their own families are much more remarkable.

Gypsies from all tones and hues give consideration to beauty to consist of reasonable epidermis, red cheeks and blue eyes, in addition to girls during the reasonable try everything feasible to check their utmost. Straight away on arrival, they placed on their makeup products of hefty eyeliner and a layer that is thick of powder. Bold sectors of red lipstick on the cheeks conclude the design.

A few distinctive Gypsy clans reside in Bulgaria. Kalaydzhii make residing as itinerant tinkers and cattle dealers

Most of the brides-to-be look shyly find, aside from the rich people that are more substantial to be able to flaunt their gold teeth, a vintage Roma icon of success, usually used onto healthier teeth. Girls try to avoid speaking with strangers and not talk about the information on a marriage that is possible. This task is kept in the hands of the grandmothers, the formal negotiators in the bride company. Brief and squat, older people ladies are clad within the old-fashioned gown associated with the Kalaydzhii – vivid green, red or blue velvet skirts and white headscarves with red plants. The older generation nevertheless wears this attire even yet in every day life and, until recently, girls at it was worn by the Fair, too. But times are changing, even yet in this community that is conservative and today lots of the future brides dress like aspiring chalga divas, miniskirts and backcombed locks included.