International Roma Day
The exhibition “Roma costumes throughout the decades” was organised by the National Roma Centrum and Kumanovo Museum in the Art Gallery in Kumanovo on the occasion of International Roma Day – April 8th. The exhibition was organised under the auspices of the mayor and the council of the municipality of Kumanovo.
Asmet Elezovski gave a speech on the importance of this day and said that the Roma had their culture and tradition which is being passed on through the centuries.
– I would be happy if all non-Roma get to know the Roma culture better, which would mean that they would get to know the true value of the Roma, said Elezovski.
The mayor Zoran Damjanovski stressed that there’s certain success in several key points in the Decade of Roma, but noted that the full implementation requires more work.
– The Roma costumes are part of the cultural heritage of this community, said Damjanovski.
The curator of the ethnological department of the Museum Kumanovo, Milica Peshevska Nikolovska, explained that the female costume underwent some transformations over the decades.
– The exhibition includes an everyday costume which the housewives wore daily. The blouse, futa and dimii are characteristic, as well as the scarf that is tied in a special way. After this period, the custom was broken, and it was retained only by the older women who practice this specific binding on celebrations such as weddings and circumcision. There are changes in the material and the length of the dimii, and the decorations such as the belt and the leg ornaments were also modified, said Peshevska Nikolovska.
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