page_title: Romani people
section_title: Beliefs
hierarchical_section_title: Romani people / Society and traditional culture / Religion / Beliefs
caption_attribution_description: Español: Trono de María de la Excelentísima, Muy Ilustre y Venerable Hermandad y Cofradía de Nazarenos de Nuestro Padre Jesús de la Columna y María Santísima de la O, popularmente, Hermandad de los Gitanos This is a photography of a Folklore festival in Spain (Wikidata id Q9075883).
context_page_description: The Romani, colloquially known as Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants living mostly in Europe, and diaspora populations in the Americas. The Romani as a people originate from the northern Indian subcontinent, from the Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab regions of modern-day India.
  Genetic findings appear to confirm that the Romani "came from a single group that left northwestern India" in about 512 CE. Genetic research published in the European Journal of Human Genetics "revealed that over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma". They are dispersed, but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The Romani arrived in Mid-West Asia and Europe around 1007. They have been associated with another Indo-Aryan group, the Dom people: the two groups have been said to have separated from each other or, at least, to share a similar history. Specifically, the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India sometime between the 6th and 11th century.
context_section_description: The ancestors of modern-day Romani people were Hindu, but adopted Christianity or Islam depending on the regions through which they had migrated. Muslim Roma are found in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, forming a very significant proportion of the Romani people. In neighboring countries such as Serbia and Greece, most Romani inhabitants follow the practice of Orthodoxy. It is likely that the adherence to differing religions prevented families from engaging in intermarriage.
  In Spain, most Gitanos are Roman Catholics.
  Some brotherhoods have organized Gitanos in their Holy Week devotions.
  They are popularly known as Cofradía de los Gitanos.
  However, the proportion of followers of Evangelical Christianity among Gitanos is higher than among the rest of Spaniards.
  Their version of el culto integrates Flamenco music.
caption: Members of the Cofradía de los Gitanos parading the "throne" of Mary of the O during the Holy Week in Malaga, Spain
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