The International Day
of the Roma
We commemorate the
International Day of the Roma every year on 8 April.
The International Day
of the Roma is one of few holidays of the Romanies which became an
international event in the 1990'. It is a day which is focused on celebrating
the Romany culture and extending awareness on Romany problems.
In spite of all the
efforts to promote it, the holiday is not very well known by the majority
population but not even by the ordinary Romanies. This day is rather known by
people of the civic sector and they are just these people who try to organize
celebrations in various towns.
The International Day
of the Roma was set up in 1990 in Warsaw where the fourth congress of the
International Romani Union (IRU) was held. It is to commemorate the day when
the international cooperation of the Romanies was officially sealed and when
the Romani movement gained an international political and social dimensions.

The International Day
of the Roma is celebrated in honour of the first international meeting of
Romani representatives which was held just on 8 April 1971 near London.

The Romani Flag

The Romani Anthem
The lyrics of the
international Romani anthem "Gelem Gelem" were written by a Romany
musician and politician Zarko Jovanovic from Beograd who has been living for
years in Paris. The lyrics were set to a traditional Romany melody. The
interesting thing is that Czech and Slovak Romanies have their own anthem
"Čhajori Romani" which was composed in the concentration camp
Auschwitz. The international anthem was adopted as late as in 1990'.
Jelem Jelem : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz0LProcpWs