A red ribbon tied around a baby’s wrist. Among Roma in Slovakia and Czechia it has been the most widespread answer to jakhendar, the evil eye: a harmful look, usually thought to come from envy. The bright red was meant to draw that look away from the child.
Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source.
A Council of Europe factsheet on Romani culture, ‘The evil eye – Jakhendar’, calls the red ribbon the most widespread Romani means against the evil eye, drawing on ethnographies from 1954 onwards. Tied on a baby’s wrist, the ribbon is meant to draw the look away from the child.
To verify: The factsheet’s own wording, and which 1954 ethnography it draws on: our research notes summarise it, but we could not open it again
Romani people in Slovakia call the evil eye jakhendar. Their belief in it is described in the Council of Europe’s series of factsheets on Romani culture, in a sheet written by Markéta Hajská. The red ribbon is the visible part of that belief: a bright thing for the look to land on, so that it misses the child.
To verify: How families keep small babies out of other people’s sight, and which signs were taken to show the evil eye, as the factsheet describes them; we could not open the factsheet to check
This is a living custom of Romani families. We tell it from the Council of Europe’s Romani culture project, make no claim about what the ribbon does, and would never make a ribbon, cord or bracelet for a baby to wear.
