1. Religion
To this day, the official religious dogma - be they Christian or Muslim, have not taken an preponderant place in Rroma life. One has to say that all Rroma in the world believe in God, but that this belief takes sometimes other forms than among the general population.
Officially, a large part of the Rroma in the Balkan (Ex-Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania) and the Crimean Rroma are Muslims. One can find some Muslim elements in their everyday life: their names, cooking, clothes and some ceremonies. All other Rroma are Christian, catholic, orthodox, some protestant (in Latvia, Estonia, Finland and the Swedish Tattare, for example).
But the traditional Rroma beliefs are very much dualistic: on the one hand, Del or Devel [God], the source of all goodness, light and the protector of men; on the other hand, Beng, the Devil, the source of evil, darkness and the tempter of men. This dualistic belief may be the trace of old oriental dogmas. It is nevertheless nowadays impossible to know which religion the Rroma ancestors had in India.
The Russian-Rroma writer and scientist Leksa Manuš (1942-1997) has analysed the current Rromani religious terminology and came to the conclusion that they are derived of old Shivaistic concepts. Such words as rašaj [priest] or trušul [cross], used nowadays among Rroma are closely related to Shivaistic terms stemming from rishi "a Shiva priest" and trisula " Shiva's trident". Leksa Manush found other words giving the hint that Rroma ancestors in India were Shiva believers.
To this day, some pagan beliefs have subsisted among Rroma - either Rroma or of local origins, from the countries they travelled in. The belief of the strength of the words, words may bring good or bad luck. As a result, in all Rroma dialects, one can find sometimes almost cliche like formulas.
These formulas are for example used in a conversation when a Rrom speaks about something bad or terrible. It then protects him and the others from bad luck. Rroma also believe in the jakhalimos, the evil eye, and there are formulas to protect oneself. Swear words solaxa (sovela, sovlja) are believed to be powerful and curses, armaja (armanja) are believed to bring bad luck to the ones they are addressed to.
All this has nothing to do with either the official Christian or Muslim religion, although sometimes swearing and cursing are made in church or in the mosque, but always when Rroma are among themselves and no priest or imam is present.
In the last years, several other congregation have been actively proselytising Rroma. Among them one finds the Pentacostalists - among Kelderara, Lovara and Sinti in Western Europe and America as well as in Finland, the Baptists and the Jehovah Witness - for example in Bulgaria.
2. Beliefs
An old belief among Rroma - still surprisingly common nowadays - is that the dead are free to travel back and forth between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Many Rroma are extremely afraid of the dead. These "living dead" are called čoxano or čovaxano - simply ghosts. Ghosts are those dead whose soul, for one reason or another remained trapped with besides his body and thus hurts him. He may have committed an inexcusable offence during his life or simply have sold his soul to the devil.