Bride Market of Bulgaria - A Controversial Tradition

Bride market?

Brides on sale?

When I saw this on the internet, I was astonished and dug about this in detail which I thought to share with you. We should know how diverse is our culture across the world and how still people practice their traditions with their beliefs and hopes.

The gypsy bride market

There are two parts to understand this term ‘Gypsy bride market’ :

• Bride market
• Why do they call gypsy?

In this market, the kalaidzhis (ancient community of Bulgaria) gather with their teen daughters and search for a suitable husband for them in the market. A market or festival is purposely set up for this purpose.

The girls put heavy makeup and gold ornaments to look beautiful and attract men suitor for their marriage. According to the kalaidzhis, until the marriage of their daughters they cannot meet or date any other male. This is strictly prohibited by their parents.

 Bride market – how it works?

This bride market is conducted in the town of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, where almost 18,000 people gather on the first Saturday of orthodox Christian lent to participate in the festival. The locals call this festive or market a ‘gypsy bride market’.

The kalaidzhis conduct a set of complex terms and conditions for negotiation to settle a price for the bride to conduct the marriage. Also, girls who are virgins and young always bid high prices because men in the market prefer young and virgin girls only. The nonvirgin woman is usually sold at a lower price.

Why they call it as Gypsy market?

Before you understand why they are called gypsy, let's study these communities. Kalaidzhis are orthodox Christian gypsies who have battled with continuous discrimination from all over Europe. 

The Romani people (like kaladzhis) emigrated from northern India in the 12-14th century in Bulgaria and spread in central Europe till the 15th century. They usually live far away from each other in the village because of the negative feeling of non-roma people towards them. 

There are many reasons for non-Roma people to discriminate against them like low literacy rate, crime rate, birth and death rates, and many social stigmas.

What Romani people think?

It seems like the daughters are sold for a good price as if they are in sales and anyone can buy them. But locals believe that the price p is for the girl’s virginity and her husband’s wealth who will support their daughter and have a bright future. 

Also due to lack of educational knowledge and poverty they belief in such practices that will bring some wealth to them to live their livelihood.