Research Items

Abstract

Baptism and the Gypsies. While popular belief in a prophylactive element in religious ritual undoubtedly survived late, it is not always easy to find records of specific instances in which a semi-magical efficacy is attached to any one form of observance. It is, therefore, of interest to find a writer in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society (Third Series, 13, pt. 4) directing attention to the excessive addiction to the rite of baptism of the gypsies at various periods of their contact with Christianity. In fact, in Saxony in the seventeenth century, it was found necessary to frame regulations for the institution of inquiry before the ceremony to check this abuse. Some are said to have had their children baptised nine and ten times; but in such cases, the motive appears to have been not superstition but gain, as on each occasion rich presents were obtained from the sponsors, who thought to acquire merit by standing for a pagan child. There is, however, a number of instances quoted, some going back to the end of the fifteenth century, from which it appears that while the gypsies cared nothing for religion, they were always anxious to get their children baptised in the belief that an unbaptised child was in a dangerous state. The Siebenburg gypsies, it is said, kindle a fire before the tent as soon as a child is born to keep evil spirits away, and extinguish it when the ceremony has made it unnecessary; and the Scottish border gypsies considered it unlucky to have an unbaptised child in a house. The magical effects of baptism were not confined to the child, but extended to any ornaments it wore. The Magdeburg church ordinances of 1652 forbade that children at baptism should be bedecked with corals, beads, gold and silver buttons and the like, in order that they too might acquire special power, though this is not attributed to the gypsies specifically, but “as common people say”.