Ursari of România 🇷🇴 and Moldova 🇲🇩 

Who are the Ursari of Romania and Moldova?
This ethnic group of Roma is known as Ursari, Richinara or Mechkari.
All three names are related to their professional occupation - training and performing with bears. “Urs” is Latin for bear, “rich” comes from Sanskrit “rkša”, and Bulgarian “мечка”.
The Ursari of Romania and Moldova are representatives of the Balkan group of Romani dialects, which distinguishes their language from other groups of Roma in these territories, who speak mainly Vlach Romani dialects.
It is believed that during the Ottoman Empire, Ursari were part of the Ottoman army. They made and repaired weapons, worked with copper metal products. And their second occupation was training and performing with bears to entertain the public.
They are also known to perform with monkeys, That's how they got another name Maymunari. Maimuna is a Serbo-Croatian word.
#proromani #rromani #gypsy #ursari