university of nova gorica graduate school contested spaces and ...

caused many neighbourhoods in the central hamlet Qëndra/Kendros, such as, for example, the
neighbourhood of Vretej, as well as the neighbourhood Pangalades in the nearby hamlet
Gjilek/Gjilekates, to be left to the ravages of time. Despite this, the small churches are partly
preserved in comparison to their surroundings within these neighbourhoods, which are
overgrown with weed. This is so because a few village ladies and one female teenager 38 take
care of the churches. Usually they clean them a day before or on the same day of their patron
saint’s name feast.
There are two Christian Orthodox priests in the village at the present, both of whom originate
from Dhërmi/Drimades. Due to the lack of priests in other villages of Himarë/Himara area,
the priests of Dhërmi/Drimades perform their religious service also in the neighbouring
village Palasa and in other places of Himarë/Himara municipality. In contrast to Palasa and
other places, the church service in Dhërmi/Drimades is performed regularly every Sunday and
on all feast days. Usually it is held in one of the churches of Ag. Haralamb or Ag. Spiridonas.
Part of the ceremony is sung in old Greek, followed by the interpretation in the local Greek
dialect.
Usually the Sunday liturgy lasts for an hour and a half and it often merges into whispering of
the women sitting at the back of the church where their place is according to the rules of
church’s spatial organisation. Besides the back women also have a place on the left side of the
church, looking towards the iconostasis or the wall of icons. In contrast to women the men are
situated on the right side of the church looking toward iconostasis. The latter links the nave,
the holy place, with the sanctuary, the sacred place. While in the nave is the place for the
people, the sanctuary is the place for the “holy of holies”. The priest who stands in front of the
iconostasis connects the people with God or Theos. A few children, teenagers and a couple of
middle aged women sit on the balcony at the back of the church, from where they observe and
comment upon the happening bellow them or calm down restless children who are running up
and down the stairs at the back of the church. The service is usually visited by 100 to 150
people, among whom the women are in majority (from 80 to 100 women and from 20 to 50
men). In the period of feasts the number of people raises to about 160 to 180. Almost all the
visitors are from Dhërmi/Drimades.
38 A month after my departure (December 2005) from Dhërmi/Drimades she married a local emigrant and moved
to Greece.
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