20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Childbirth and related rituals, in Albania(General view of these ritualswithin Albanian society until nowadays)Xhemile ABDIUUniversity of Tirana – TiranaDuring a lifetime we are distinguishing three important moments thathave positive or negative effects in our life. The first of them is the birthof a child who comes into life crying. All the family, mother, father andcousins are happy and this event has a positive impact on their lives. Thesecond important moment is the marriage and the third is the death.The birth of a baby is one of the most important events in a family. Theimportance of having babies is mentioned even in weddings wishes whenAlbanians say “U trashëgofshi” (‟may you be happy in marriage and havea long conjugal life with many children”).In Albania, as everywhere else, the birth of a baby is not only a desireto have heirs, but also to create a big and a strong family.The new conjugal life, in general, includes as part of its scopes givingbirth to babies, the family continuity. In the patrilineal traditions of a notso-farpast, a family without children was not accepted, especially withoutboys who would inherit the land of their ancestors, the property and thename of the family. People judged that, “men die, but the property, thehome, the name of the family and the memory of the ancestors, safeguardedby the descendants, should never fade” (Tirta, 2003: 315).When seeking to chose a bride for their son, families would look mainlyfor girls coming from well-known families, who potentially had more thanone son, since this added to their belief that the bride will be able to givebirth to boys. Most of the rituals of the wedding support this belief.Amongst the ritual of fertility for women, as well as among thecustoms related to the wish of having children, particularly boys, we can