My ears pricked up during last night's fascinating TV programme Big Fat Gypsy Wedding - about UK travellers tying the knot - when one of the young brides-to-be mentioned what she ought to wear to attend a forthcoming annual horse fair.
Unfortunately she meant Appleby's, in Westmoreland, not Brigg's long-running August tradition which brings members of the travelling community to our town to buy and sell their steeds in the time-honoured fashion. Footage followed showing gypsy girls at Appleby Horse Fair.
It's not many years since Josie Webb oversaw a small exhibition of Brigg Horse Fair pictures of the past, staged in the White Horse by BASH. Some of my father's images of horse fairs from the early 1970s were among them, and a few of the gypsies who visited the pub for a look spotted themselves, or relatives, among the pictures on display.
Returning to the hour-long TV programme, the terms 'gypsy', 'traveller' and 'Romany' were used at various times. But no real effort was made to explain the distinction between the three, which would have been helpful to many viewers.
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Romani (or Romany) really refers to a language.
The original ethnic Romani Gypsies came from the Indian sub-continent..dark skinned...and Ramani (as in language) has its roots on the various Indian sub languages.
They emigated during the Middle Ages, or earlier and settled in various parts of Asia and Europe.
They could be decribed as an early type of migrant worker following a nomandic life-style.
Romani(y) gypsies are rare in the UK, but are comparatively more common in eastern Europe and, for example, Turkey.
It was this group that Hilter sent to the concentration camps.
Will Shakespeare mentions them in Antony & Cleopatra - something about, 'cooling a gypsy's lust'
Romani(y) gypsies are recognised as an official ethnic group.
The word Gypsy is really a generic word and includes all types of sub-groups who follow a nomadic life-style - ie Romani(y), New Age Travellers, Irish Travellers, Circus Travellers and etc.
The gypsies about Brigg appear to be Irish Travellers.
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