20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

626 Spartak KadiuThe wedding day is set at the time of full moon. The new full moonwas also considered prosperous for the land and heritage by other Indo-European people. This is noted also today.The wedding used to begin one week or three days from the weddingday. In the first days of the wedding ceremony, relatives and friends usedto come for a visit. One person was appointed to invite guests. He wascalled “announcer”, “messenger”, “envoy”, “invitee”, etc. According to theKanun, “four weeks before the wedding, father of the groom or head offamily has to go himself to invite the in-laws”. (Tirta, 2003: 284) Theyused to go and invite the friends with a small muffin.A symbolic invitation was also sent to the bride by the part of thegroom and vice-versa. This was implemented in the area of Devoll. OnFriday before noon, the groom and some of his relatives used to take apiece of bread and go to invite the bride at the wedding. The invitationswere usually made orally, but in some regions were used the invitations,especially for the guests out of the village. It was as rule not to go emptyhanded, thus were given symbolic presents, such as handkerchiefs, socks,fruits or even money.There were three categories of guests, including his family, guestand his wife, or single guest. In Gur i Bardhe (Mat), when it was invitedthe entire family, the announcer used to say “greetings from Mr. so andso to take your children and come to the wedding; when it was a doubleinvitation, they used to say “take the white veil (used by women for thehead) and come to the wedding; or when it was a single invitation it was“take the cigar holder and come to the wedding”. (Alushi, 1972, 262,Tirta, 2003: 286)Day of woods was called the day when were cut the wood to be usedfor the cooking and heating at the wedding. In some regions, it was calledthe day of the sticks, where the entire village used to bring wood for thewedding.Day of dough is related to the preparations of the key food element, theritual bread. Even though the making of dough ceremony has its differentcharacteristics in different regions, this was an important ritual of theAlbanian wedding. The dough was prepared three of four days before thebride’s arrival, on Wednesday or Thursday if the wedding was to be heldon Sunday, but it could also be prepared on Tuesday, Fridays of Saturdays.The sifting of the flour and preparation of dough is usually made by youngwomen, with their parents still alive, who used to gather in the house of theson and daughter and prepare the dough singing.