I'm a gypsy & here are the five beliefs I follow – including the word we never use & the reason we wear black for a year | The Sun

A ROMAN gypsy has revealed the particular beliefs and superstitions her family have always followed.

Anna-Marie explained how she's not trying to share what every gypsy and traveller believes in – adding that in her culture, each family will have their own beliefs.

In a clip shared to TikTok (@annamariesmithclark), she dispels the myth that travellers are brought up not to use certain animal words – including "rats, monkeys and snakes."

However, Anna-Marie says: "I was never brought up to not say them words, but naturally we do just call rats 'long tails.'

"I've never known why….I was never ever not allowed to say them, we just didn't.

"But that being said, my Uncle Ernie didn't like those words, so I wasn't allowed to say them around him out of respect."

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Anna-Marie goes on to say that another belief she's seen other travellers share on social media is not being able to put wreaths on the door.

"I've never heard of not being able to put wreaths on the door," she says.

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"I used to put a wreath on my door every Christmas up until a couple of years ago when I first got one of the bows.

"I only got that because it looks nicer – it looks like a nice little present wrapped up.

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"But I've never heard that you weren't allowed to, or it was not something we didn't do, so I did, so that's not something that we believe in.

"But on here, obviously, I've heard other travellers don't do it because it's bad luck or it represents death or someone dying, but I've never believed in that."

Anna-Marie says that one she does agree with and was brought up to do was when a close family member passes away, she would always wear black for a year.

"So when I lost my mum when I was 15, I wore black for her for a year," she explains.

"Five and a half years ago when we lost my dad, I wore black for a year.

"That's very traditional and that is one, actually, that most Gypsies and travellers do.

"I'm not going to say all, because there might be people out there that don't do it, but every other Gypsy and traveller that I know will do that tradition.

"They'll wear black for a close family member for a year –
and it's out of respect, it's in mourning."

She goes on to say that another tradition is that when she lost her mum, they had her back for two nights in their trailer.

"Then, after the funeral, we come back and we left anything in there that we didn't want anymore, so we always had pieces of clothing of hers," she continues.

"And everyone took a little bit of something, but everything else that belonged with her, we left it in there and we set it like.

"So we burnt the trailer with the rest of her belongings in it – and so we're releasing her spirit."

While not superstitions, Anne-Marie then addresses common habits associated with cleaning.

"We won't wash our tea towels in the washing machine – they get soaked in a bucket or bowl with bleach and washing powders," she says.

"You wash them by hand because we find that's dirty, we just wouldn't do that.

"So we have lots of cleaning rules, so different bowls for different things, different cloths for different things."

Anne-Marie concludes by noting that when men are making a deal, so if they're dealings cars, they'd give "luck money" back.

"So if it's a £10, £20 or £50, we'll always give someone luck money back, so it's a nice thing to do," she says.

"It's telling them, 'here, have some luck with that motor that I've just sold you."

The post has since gone viral, racking up over 70k views and several comments from social media users up and down the country.

"My nan would boil her towels in a big cooking pot and the pot was only for her towels lol," wrote one.

A second commented: "When my dad passed my mum wore black for a year & we kept all the curtains closed from the day he passed till the day after his funeral."

A third penned: "That’s really interesting and I love the idea of luck money. I am going to try and adopt that now. It’s a kind supportive thing to do."

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Meanwhile, a fourth noted: "My mum would never have a wreath on her door because she thought they meant death, Is it just a generation thing?"

A further added: "My mum would always separate the men’s washing to ours, and never underwear in with it, she done that all by hand."

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