Feast and Forgive: A few sacred customs of the Romani New Year

...and the legacy of the limping saint Bango Vasil

Pepi’s nephew Sotir, with his wife and family, on New Year’s Eve

You can tell a lot about a culture by what it chooses to celebrate.

The Roma don’t celebrate military victories, conquests, or territorial expansions. They don’t have any, because they never lusted for any in their 1,000+ years of history.

But they don’t formally celebrate their actual achievements, either. They don’t proclaim loudly what they have contributed to the world. They don’t have a celebration for their unparalleled music, their unparalleled craftsmanship, or any of the innumerable ways they have influenced Middle Eastern, Balkan, and European cultures.

What they do celebrate, in the two main holidays that mainstream culture recognizes as “Romani holidays” is new life, renewal, and saints who have rescued them. The biggest Roma holiday, Ederlezi, on May 6th. And the Roma New Year, Vasilitza, on January 14th.

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Ederlezi: How the Romani celebrate the slaying of the dragon

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Who is Bango Vasil?

Vasilitza takes its name from the patron saint Vasil, who in orthodox Christianity is celebrated on January 1st, but used to be celebrated on January 14th. The Roma here in Bulgaria have preserved the old calendar in their traditions, so while they celebrate New Year with everyone else on January 1st, the real New Year, where all the important customs and traditions are being followed, is on January 14th.

So who is Vasil?

According to one legend, he was a saint who rescued a Romani tribe from drowning. They were crossing a bridge but the Devil destroyed from under their feet, so they fell into a raging river. Vasil sent a flock of geese who plucked the drowning Romani from the water and brought them to safety.

Another legend portrays Vasil as a shepherd who saw two Romani boys drowning in a river, dove in head first and rescued them. And yet another legend says that Vasil was a shepherd who gave shelter in his home to Roma fleeing from enemies.

Regardless of whether Vasil had superhuman powers to send a flock of geese and rescue an entire tribe or he rescued two boys with his own hands, what the Roma celebrate is the kindness. The act of recognizing the value of their life. The refusal to watch them die.

They don’t call him “Saint Vasil.” They call him “Bango Vasil” which translates to “crooked,” and “broken.” In all of the legends, Vasil is limping.

Why the focus on his limp? On the brokenness?

“The elders in my tribe used to say,” Pepi remembers, “that he was injured while he was rescuing us. So this is why he got a limp.”

For the Roma, the sacrifice, the permanent debilitation, which came as a result of rescuing their lives, is what turns Vasil into their patron. It brings him closer to their human reality, one of constant peril, danger, and persecution. And now he’s an “other”, just like them - by the mere act of helping them.

Forgiveness and letting go of the bad