A glass of water

Chapter 47

There she was. Fulfilling her dreams. She always wanted to have a big Romany wedding. When she was 9 she was learning how to dress the bottom part of the traditional shalvare, they were so heavy and they had a special way of dressing. While the girls were helping her to dress the henna night red shalvare, she was looking at her reflection in the mirror.  The newest model of this year shalvare were from a thin silky fabric, something in between the conventional kule and wedding shalvare. A special model of the top of shalvare was a tighten corset to do the body with one large ruffle till her shoulder. On the neck she had a special golden necklace made from old Austrian jewelers, 5 golden coins, one big and four smaller. Long grape shaped earings and lots of golden bangles on the arms. As for rings, the most beautiful was the ring in almond shape that Nelly was wearing in the middle right finger. She was smiling. I do like my hair, so many curls, so high is the bun but she loved it. Even the make-up on her face was too much, but she was seing a Romany happy woman. Thank god so many old traditions has changed. This is her second marriage. Her parent's tribe would have never give a  blessing to henna night because, according to the tradition, henna night's meaning is that the girl is a virgin and soon she will become a woman, that is why the bride to be is wearing red clothes. The Romani tribe's new leaders have made a great influence for changing many old traditions. Some of them were just like they were, others have changed many elements and added new ones in harmony with new era. It was great that the new Baro of the tribe Leonardo has allowed Nelly to make all the customs of the Balkan Roma here in Spain. 

-Hey Nelly, avile, avile(Romani:they are here)!-Dano came ruuning into the room

-Ko avile (Who came)?

-Le mikora (Romani: the groom's family)!

About thirty young women dressed in traditional shalvare in rows of 4-5 women were dancing. In front of the there were douzen young girls (unmarried ones) that were carrying lighted candles in their hands and the first row was reserved for the elderly women, usually it was the mother of the groom, the aunts...This time the bowl with prepared henna was covered with traditional red scarf  and it was in the hands of aunt Ramayana. She was the only closest relative to Jonas.

-Yasha e boryake! (Romani: Long live the bride)!!!-All the women were shouting loud.

At the end of the dancing woman was a brass band from South of Serbia, the most famous brass band of Markovic family.

Nelly's parents weren't alive. Her uncle has passed away too. His wife was too old, but she was happy to be the host of the henna ceremony. My dear Pakize auntie! Nelly invited couple of her old neighbors from the small city in Bulgaria where she spent over 20 years of her life.

It was a moment for the custom's ceremony to begin!