The work is devoted to the history and culture of the Gypsies included in the multiethnic community of the Kama region. Currently, the region is home to representatives of three ethnographic groups of the Roma ethnic group: Russian, Crimean, and Moldavian (Calderary) Gypsies. Perm's Kalderar Gypsies, being Orthodox Christians, preserve traditional social institutions and rituals. But the basis of their national calendar is the holidays of the church calendar; among them stands out Easter-Patradi. Calderar Gypsies believe that the well-wishes offered during Easter rounds contribute to the well-being of their community. Holidays are an important element of self-organization and self-preservation of this group.

One of the most "mysterious" peoples inhabiting the Kama region can be called Gypsies. Few people are truly familiar with their history and traditional culture. Researchers estimate that there are 6-10 million Roma in the modern world. This ethnic group consists of many groups that differ significantly in the peculiarities of language, religion, group self-consciousness, and traditional culture [Demetr, Bessonov, and Kutenkov, 2000, pp. 43-48; Bessonov, 2007].

The modern Russian community often perceives Roma in accordance with long-established stereotypes: these are free people who "follow the sun", or dishonest, roguish horse thieves. According to the 2002 census, approximately 183,000 Roma live in Russia. 1,606 people were registered in the Perm Region. Representatives of three ethnographic groups of the Gypsy ethnic group live here: Russian and Crimean Gypsies, as well as Kelderars (kotlyars), as they are commonly called in the scientific literature, or Moldavian Gypsies, as they call themselves [Chernykh, Vayman, Imaikina, 2005]. Among the Gypsies of the Kama region, urban residents predominate - 1,275 people (79.4 %), while only 331 people (20.6%) live in rural areas.

In one of the districts of Perm, the Kalderar Gypsies are compactly settled. The Kalderar ethnographic group of Gypsies is the largest in the world. They are divided into several subgroups: Moldavian, Hungarian, Serbian, etc. The Calderar ethnographic group was formed in the Balkans; this determines its cultural connection with the culture of the peoples of the region. The main occupation of the Kalderars is handicraft, primarily making and tinning dishes. "Calderar "means" cauldron "in Romanian (as well as" kotlyar "- from the Russian"cauldron"). The migration of the Kalderar/ Kotlyar Gypsies from the Balkans began in the 19th century and was caused by the repressive policy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire towards the Gypsies (Demetr, Bessonov, Kutenkov, 2000; Bessonov, 2007).

Many communities of Kalderar Gypsies who settled in Europe and Russia still retain their traditional social institutions and basic components of ethnic culture. Studies of the Kalderar population in Perm began in 2003. The length of field work and the depth of trust relationships allowed us to collect significant material that reveals its history and features of the modern life of the camp [Chernykh, 2003].

In 2002, the Perm camp numbered 221 people; only three of them were officially registered as Gypsies, 133 (60.1%) as Bessarabians, 67 (30.3%) as Moldovans, 6 (2.7%) as Romanians, 6 (2.7%) as Greeks, and 6 (2.7 %)as Romanians. "the Serbs. Registering as Bessarabians and Moldovans, as they say in the camp, is a long-standing tradition: "Here it is written in my passport that Bessarabia. It was our old people who painted their children in Bessarabia. We roamed in Bessarabia, and here are the Bessarabians." The record that they are Bessarabians, according to Moldavian Gypsies, allows them to distinguish themselves from Russian Gypsies: "This is because Russian Gypsies are called Gypsies by their passport, and we are separated as Moldovans, as Bessarabians." In Romani culture, there is a clear contrast between "friends" and" strangers", Gypsies and"non-Gypsies".

Ancient by origin, the people who left the borders of South Asia at the end of 1 thousand AD, for many centuries preserved their identity in a foreign cultural environment. The secret of the Gypsy "stability" is revealed by a legend recorded in the camp of Kalderars of Perm: "When God divided the land, he forgot about the Gypsies. And one of the gypsies went to God with tears in his eyes and said: "Why did you, God, do this to me, you gave the land to everyone, but you didn't give it to me?" Then God said to this: "I will give you a mind, so that you can live with your own mind, cunning. And that this extracted

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your piece of bread. And the whole world will be at your feet. And you will earn your bread with your wits and cunning, and you will survive wherever you go."

By exploring different parts of the world, adapting to different socio-economic and ethno-cultural conditions, the Roma sought to maintain their independence from the host communities. Now the Gypsies are settled all over the world. But their language, which belongs to a special Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European family, is still the closest to ancient Sanskrit and modern Hindi, and their culture retains many archaic features dating back to the" Indian " past.

Gypsies know that their ancestral homeland is India. However, they have many mythological versions of "ethnogenesis". About how the Gypsies appeared, tells the legend recorded in the camp of Perm from Z. G. Kulay: "Before there were no different peoples on earth. And God brought the people into His Garden of Eden. And there were different trees, and pears, and plums, and apples. And everyone went to the tree that they liked. So different peoples went, who ate what fruit. The gypsy woman went and ate one plum. So our parents went from plum. She didn't go where the apples were, where the pears were, but went where the plums were, and so the gypsies went. The Tatars ate peas. When they ate peas, they said, " God helps. Peas grow enough to keep people healthy." The Uzbek ate an olive, black and juicy. They're still as black as olives, and they have a face. Russian apples were eaten. She went, saw a beautiful apple hanging on a branch, went and ate it. And, really, Russian apples love. And the Jews went to the place where the pears are. And pears, you know, they're as long as your nose. And the Jews have a nose as long as a pear. Romanians, they are beautiful, there is no more beautiful, they are beautiful as grapes. They used to have chaises too. They were driving and saw: this is an apple, this is a pear... and where the grapes are-they stopped, took two or three twigs each, ate, and they became so beautiful, cute, and more beautiful than each other. And the Bulgarians ate apricots, they are also beautiful. And the gypsies went to plums. The first girl was three or four years old, and she ate a plum, one, two, three, so the gypsies are as dark as a plum. So the Moldavian and All-Union Gypsies went from plum." Thus, in the folklore of the Kalderar Gypsies, the biblical story of the primeval Eden was transformed.

The Gypsies of Perm are Orthodox. There are icons in every house of the camp. They are placed in a corner in the central room. Gypsies celebrate the holidays of the Orthodox calendar, the main ones among which are Christmas, Easter, Trinity, St. Peter's Day, Assumption. Since Romani holidays do not have an economic basis, which significantly affects the calendar rituals of many peoples, the main content of them is customs related to communal, kinship and family relations. It is not customary for Gypsies to perform home prayers or attend church on holy holidays. The ideology of most Romani holidays is determined by the desire to ensure the well-being of the camp. Despite the Christian nature of the holidays, they are based on folk traditions.

One of the main holidays for Gypsies is Easter Patradi. Often it is from him that the Gypsies keep track of time; in the camp they say: "It's probably been three Easter days." With children celebrating this holiday for the first time, Gypsy Calderars have special rituals associated with them. Children are required to paint their foreheads with red Easter egg paint. "It's his first Easter," they emphasize, telling about this custom. Easter for a newborn becomes a real beginning of his life.

The Easter holiday is celebrated in the camp for three days; each day has its own color. The first one begins with a tour of the houses with congratulations. In the gypsy camp, buildings are arranged randomly. The traditional dwelling of Moldavian Gypsies was once a tent-tent of the caer. Today, Gypsies live in houses made of timber and bricks or in wooden houses with backfill. The layout of their village repeats the traditional scheme of nomadic camping: families of relatives tried to put up tents closer to each other.

In terms of the interior, many Gypsy houses are almost indistinguishable from an ordinary city apartment. But in some cases, the specifics of the nomadic way of life are preserved in the structure of the dwelling. Many gypsy houses do not have a porch or vestibule - a person immediately enters the living room from the street. In the Gypsy interior today, as before, there are many carpets that often separate the rooms. There is very little furniture in the tabor's houses; some families prefer to sleep on the floor "in the old-fashioned way".

On the Easter holiday, the village of gypsies-kalderarov Perm turns into a cheerful nomadic camp. There is no strict house crawl system. First come the children. In the morning, they are sent to relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances. Entering the house, the kids say good wishes, and the owners give them treats. Children running through the streets with plastic bags filled with colored eggs - this is the picture you can see on the first day of Easter on the outskirts of the city. The children look at the received gifts, including many colored eggs and sweets, and exchange them.

From the dawn of the first day of Easter, adult Gypsies prepare festive tables. The table is set for all three days of Easter and cleaned only when the holiday is over. In the past, nomadic gypsies prepared food at bonfires, and a small festive table was set in tents. And currently, they still believe that what the table looks like will determine the happiness of the coming year. One of the wishes often uttered on public holidays is: "Let there be such a table every day."

On the Gypsy holiday table today, there are few traditional dishes; the main ones are Sarmali cabbage rolls

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and a sweet cognac pie. For traditional Gypsy cabbage rolls, you need salted cabbage. Cabbage rolls are made from cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat, sometimes with the addition of other ingredients. Sweet pie is prepared in a special way: the filling is placed on a rolled sheet of dough, after which the juicy roll is rolled. Several rolls are spread on a baking sheet and baked. The filling for the pie is cottage cheese, poppy seeds, raisins, dried apricots, and other dried fruits. In addition to "gypsy" dishes, other dishes are also put on the table.

Easter treats include: vinaigrette, fresh vegetable salads, fried chicken, smoked sausage (necessarily whole loaves), fruit. Spoons and forks are not laid out on the festive table; sometimes, as an exception, one or two are used. One of the important conditions for serving, so that the holiday, like the whole subsequent year, is not "dry", is an abundance of beer bottles on the table; they are placed around the perimeter.

Painted eggs are always present on the Easter table. There must be at least three of them; the Gypsies say: "At least how much more, but three to be sure." On the first day, colored eggs are placed on every table and the owner presents them to everyone who comes. But on this day, their use is prohibited: "On the first day of Easter, eggs are not eaten - it is impossible, and on the second day it is already possible."

Colored eggs are not only the main treat of the holiday; many rituals are associated with them. Eggs are colored in various ways; in the past, usually with onion husks. Today, they use purchased dyes, most often red. Therefore, during the festive exchange, the hands of the hosts and guests turn bright red. Often, neighbors use Easter eggs to rub each other's palms and children's cheeks on purpose. Red color on the hands and on children's faces on the first day of Easter becomes its peculiar symbol.

The main event of the first day of the holiday is a tour of the houses by the men of the camp. Everyone takes part in it - from teenagers to the very old. It is believed that a man should visit every house, congratulate the owners on the upcoming Easter, it is especially important to come to visit those with whom he found himself in a quarrel. Sometimes all the men gather in a huge group of 100 people or more, and sometimes they form two groups and move from different parts of the village; however, the meeting is usually excluded: one of the groups turns aside and goes the other way. As a rule, the men gather at the house of the elder of the baro camp; from his house they begin their rounds, then follow the order and enter each house.

The owner of the house, who also takes part in the round, tries to enter first to meet the guests and accept congratulations. They do not stay long in their homes: they exchange Easter eggs with their owners; they take a bottle of beer from the table, but do not open it, but carry it with them to leave it on the table in the next house and take another one; they try snacks, drink, but purely symbolically - after all, there are many houses ahead where festive tables are also set. The most important thing when making your rounds is to greet and congratulate your hosts. These are long, ornate sentence formulas with wishes for happiness, wealth, health, and well-being to the family and home. They are chanted. Gypsies believe that the future of each individual, each family and the entire community depends on the good wishes uttered during Easter rounds.

The third round of houses, already in the afternoon, is made by women. This is far from the solemn and impressive ritual that men have. There are not so many women; they do not go around the whole camp, as a rule, they do not go into houses where a male company is walking at the festive table.

There is a special attitude towards women in the camp. Their daily life is regulated by numerous regulations. Women should not cross the path of men, sit down with them at the festive table; they should not sit and pass with their backs to men. Previously, a woman was not allowed to pass in front of a horse. Today, they are forbidden to step over dishes and other objects; many attributes of a woman's costume are considered unclean, especially a skirt, one touch of which is enough to make a person or thing become "filthy". Compliance with these prohibitions is still necessary in the Perm camp.

Girls and girls before marriage are in a privileged position: they are not subject to the regulations that married women must comply with. Girls do not wear traditional costumes, do not follow strict norms in behavior, they do not have special responsibilities. Many restrictions are also lifted from older women. They enjoy special honor and respect. The social status of gypsies changes with age. The holiday, while emphasizing tender stratification, nevertheless connects the members of the camp.

If on the first day of Easter there is unity of the community, then on the second day there is a ritual confirmation of unity in faith. On this day, godchildren give gifts to their godparents. Visiting godparents is strictly regulated: the whole family goes to visit; when approaching the godfather's house, they shout loudly and loudly: "Hurrah-a-a-a!".

Men are usually given shirts, women-headscarves, cuts on a skirt or jacket. For little godchildren, gifts are given by their parents. As a rule, a gift is wrapped around a bottle of beer: without this, it is impossible - a gift, like a holiday, should not be "dry". The godfather, after accepting the gifts, must himself bring the godson a piece of bread with salt - for his happiness and well-being.

Often a person has several godparents, and it is necessary to congratulate them all. Godparents are bypassed during

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all day long. Each of them has a lot of gifts. On some men, on the day of the holiday, you can see three, four, five or more new shirts put on one another - all these are gifts from godchildren.

On the second day of Easter, after lunch, the fun begins in the houses of the camp. Gypsies gather in groups with relatives or neighbors, move from one house to another, dance, sing. Today, Gypsies often sing karaoke. But karaoke doesn't have a Gypsy repertoire, so Russian songs have to be translated into the Gypsy language.

Gypsies have always highly valued the ability to dance. It is rare for a woman not to master this art. The informant tells us: "Here, if you go to dance and don't know how, you had to pay a fine. My grandmother used to pay a fine for not being able to dance. Here at the festival, everyone is sitting, calling: "Now your wife is going to dance." She walks, dances. My grandmother couldn't dance. My grandfather paid a fine of five gold rubles to buy moonshine and treat the guests for my grandmother. It was a shame before that a gypsy girl couldn't dance like a Gypsy. This is our legend about my grandmother."

The third day of the Easter Week for Moldavian Roma in Perm is the final one. It is not accompanied by special rites. This day is spent with friends, friends and relatives at the festive table, with dances and songs. By the evening, the festive table must be cleaned. In the morning, the gypsy camp returns to its usual rhythm of life. Men go to work, children go to school, and gypsies once again take to the streets of the city, offering passers-by: "Hey, diamond, let me guess!".

On Tuesday of the second week after Easter, Radunitsa is celebrated-Memorial Day. Among the Gypsies, it is called Little Easter-Tsigni Patradi. On this day, it is customary to go to the cemetery, visit the graves of deceased relatives. Sometimes commemorations are performed at home. Colored eggs are always brought to the cemetery, which are kept for this purpose from Easter. This holiday unites the living and the dead and brings to life the memory of the difficult history of the Romani people.

Easter is a communal holiday for the Kaldarars of Perm. The laws of the camp have always been very important for the Gypsies. In the conditions of dispersed settlement, self-preservation of an ethnic group was possible while maintaining stable social institutions. It was the community - tabor-that allowed and continues to allow the Roma of Perm to remain a small ethnic island in a huge industrial city. Roma believe that community foundations are a guarantee of their ethnic future. The preservation of tribal divisions, early marriages, the choice of the bride by parents according to the standards of generic exogamy, the rejection of civil institutions of marriage registration, non - domestic conflict resolution, etc. - all this ensures the isolation of the community and its stability. At the same time, the Roma people, while maintaining a certain degree of autonomy, are trying to integrate into the surrounding socio-cultural space. The Gypsy way of life, the Gypsy culture actively absorb the changes taking place in society. Even today, Roma increasingly have to interact with State institutions.

There are a lot of issues that the camp of Perm and its elder G. D. Butso have to solve : the organization of children's education and medical services, the improvement of the Roma settlement and the registration of houses, and the fight against drug addiction. The Perm administration is actively engaged in a dialogue. This understanding is highly appreciated by the Kalderar Gypsies themselves. By sacrificing autonomy in favor of interaction, they try to identify new prospects for their ethnic and social development.

List of literature

Bessonov N. The fate of a nomadic tribe / / National Geographic (Russia). - 2007. - April. - p. 61-65.

Demeter N., Bessonov N., Kutenkov V. The history of the Gypsies: A new look. Voronezh: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000, 334 p.

Chernykh A.V. Perm Gypsies: Essays on the ethnography of the Gypsy camp. Perm: Perm State University, 2003, 60 p. (in Russian)

Chernykh A.V., Vaiman D. I., Imaikina E. A. Ethnosocial processes in the Gypsy communities of the Perm region at the present stage (based on the results of the ethnosociological study of the Gypsies of the Perm region). Perm: Publishing House of Perm region Scientific Research. avitality Center Publ., 2005, 52 p. (in Russian)

A. V. Chernykh, Perm Branch of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

44 Pushkin St., Office 1, Perm, 614022, Russia

atschernych@yandex.ru

* * *

Photo essay "Gypsy Easter 2003 in Perm" prepared by A. G. Zakharov.

A. G. Zakharov has worked as a photojournalist in photojournalism since 1995 and collaborated with leading regional magazines and newspapers. In 2003-2004, he participated in the implementation of the project "Gypsy culture in the socio-cultural space of the city"; winner of the contest of social and cultural projects of the Perm administration. The result of his work on the project was a personal photo exhibition "People on the Road".

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1. Grantcho Dodovich Butso, an elder of the Gypsy camp of Perm.

Grancho Dodovich Butso. Born in 1941 in Belarus. Fleeing from the Nazis, his father's camp went to Siberia. In 1979, G. D. Butso came to Perm. Fifteen years ago, he became a baron. In Romani, "baro" means " senior, good, big, kind." It was his nomadic caravan that went first, according to custom. It is to him that both the authorities and their own Gypsies turn today. It is from his house that the Easter round begins.

2. Easter detour in the Tsygansky district of Perm.

The morning of the first day of Easter begins with a detour involving children. Closer to dinner, the men go, followed only by the women. Children bring happiness. Everything that is done is done for them. At the festival, little boys copy adult men. Only after the wedding will they take their place in the camp.

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3. On the Easter holiday, children are smeared with red paint on their faces.

Gypsies measure their lives from Easter to Easter. Children who celebrate the holiday for the first time are painted with red Easter egg paint on their foreheads. "It's his first Easter," they say about a one - year-old child.

4. Easter table in the house of D. Rikovich.

A festive feast is a ritual. Treats are prepared in the evening, and the table is served early in the morning. The first guests arrive before dark. A set table meant for God and people is sacred. Only older men can sit at the table. Women never turn their backs to the table and men. They walk out of the room, carefully backing away.

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5. In the elder's house.

Gypsies have several names. A woman is born with one, comes to her husband's house with another, and the third is recorded in her passport. Everyone knows these names. And only the wife of the Perm baron is always called the same-Poole. "Pula "means" flower " in Romani.

6. The Rikovich family.

Dobmi and Maritza Rikovici have lived in Perm since 1979 and have two sons and a daughter. The daughter was married: to Yekaterinburg, to the Bolosoni family-the marmot family. Two daughters-in-law from the Damoni family-the pumpkin family-were brought to their sons from Ulyanovsk. Traditionally, the Perm camp of the Ruvoni family - the wolf family-takes wives from the marmot, pumpkin and two dozen other Gypsy families living in Russia.

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7. The second day of Easter in the house of D. Rikovich.

Three Easter days in the house is a festive table set. Treats are treated with care: "They try not to break the table." On the first day of Easter, eggs are not eaten, only given to each other; on the second day, eggs are beaten, exchanged, and treated to visitors.

8. Natasha Kulai is a well-known performer of Gypsy songs.

Every second Gypsy in the camp bears the surname Kulai. Every gypsy girl sings, but Natasha is the best.

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9. A gift for your godfather.

Godparents are just as important to Gypsies as blood relatives. On the second day of Easter, godchildren congratulate their godparents, bring gifts: colored eggs, shirts or shawls. So that the gift is not "dry", they wrap beer bottles; when they approach the godfather's house, they loudly shout: "Hooray-a-a-a\".

10. Easter greetings.

Bruma Kulai, born in 1963. "Bruma "means"dew" in Romani. Her father named her that because she was born early in the morning. The dew is light, so the Bruma in the camp is called Sveta. She's a Damoni pumpkin.

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11. Zambila Georgievna Kulai, the oldest in the camp.

Zambila Georgievna Kulai was born in 1914; there is no one older than her in the gypsy camp of Perm. She baptized everyone and treated everyone, knows everything and remembers everyone. She remembers how her father starred in the first film about the Gypsies of Russia -"The Last Camp", and her mother - in the film "The Camp goes to heaven". She cries when she watches these movies.

12. Easter table of the first day of the holiday.

The Gypsies say that people go to church in misery. Easter is a bright and joyful holiday. It crowns a strict weekly fast. Easter is celebrated at home. The Easter table is a symbol of prosperity and abundance. "Let there be such a table every day" - this wish is most often heard on a holiday.

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