Bijav | "Wedding"
by Kristali Band
“Here comes the wedding party” has such a different ring to the original “Here come the godežari.” But this is one of the many untranslatable words from Roma and Balkan culture. The godežari are the people on the groom’s side: his parents, his brothers and sisters, his cousins, aunts, and uncles, who come to take the bride and bring her into their fold.
In some modern-day weddings that want to be “traditional”, the stealing of the bride is still enacted for fun. A few years ago, Martina went to the wedding of a high school friend. It involved the groom and his men pushing against the door of the bride’s room, and she with her maid of honor and close friends were pressing against it to keep it closed. Only when the man prevailed and enacted a kidnapping of the giggling bride, did the wedding take place. It was all for fun, but it showcased something that used to be the reality of many brides in the not-so-distant past, regardless of their ethnicity.
This old song is from the perspective of a young Roma bride with a similar fate. “Here come the godežari,” she sings. Man te mangen means “to want me.” “To ask for me.” Most accurately, “to take me.”
