20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Albanian wedding rituals (Influence of oriental elements... 625consist of a small number of objects, such as handkerchief, ring or silvermoney. In many regions of Albania, especially in the north, together withthe ring was also given a handkerchief. The veil was a ritual sign showingthat the girl is “covered” engaged.After the sign-giving ceremony, the girl is connected to the boy andnone could touch her, otherwise there could be a blood feud. In the north,the girl can leave the fiancé declaring her a “virgin”, dress like a man andstay as an eternal unmarried woman. The sign consists of the first act of theagreement between parts.Marriage relations include two stages:––First years of the war up to 1965––Beginning of 1966 up to our days.In the second stage appears the phenomenon of the marriage betweenpeople of different religious beliefs.The wedding, a process established in early times with many ritualsand ceremonies, brings about interesting elements of different ethnologicorigins. The implementation of ancient customs and rituals remainan important element of Albanian weddings, including customs forpreparations of wedding in the house of the bride and groom, departure ofthe bride and arrival at the groom’s house.In the Albanian wedding ceremonial, we notice the tracks of differenthistoric periods, and these historical-ethnological divisions give thewedding ceremonial an ancient nuance and represent it as a rich andinteresting ritual. (Tirta, 2003: 282)The wedding day is determined after the completion of the tokenpreparations by the house of the girl. In different regions, the determinationof the wedding day was called “orok”, “set the date”, “give the word”.The weeding day cannot be postponed; otherwise, it was considered a badwoman. Thus, in some regions, even a sudden death in one of the familiescould not postpone the wedding.The wedding day was a day of the week, which in people’s beliefused to bring luck and happiness. Due to different religious beliefs, thewedding day is not the same for all the believers. In general, the weddingwas held on Thursday or Sunday, considered lucky days. Nevertheless, incatholic families, up to the quarter of XX century, the weddings were heldon Mondays. Monday was considered a wedding day also in other regions,such as Malësia e Gjakovës, and several villages in Puke, despite theirbelief in Muslim religion.