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Concept
Albanian folk beliefs
Summary
Albanian folk beliefs (Besimet folklorike shqiptare) and mythological stories comprise the beliefs expressed in the customs, rituals, myths, legends and tales of the Albanian people. The elements of Albanian mythology are of ancient Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of them are pagan. Albanian folklore evolved over the centuries in a relatively isolated tribal culture and society. Albanian folk tales and legends have been orally transmitted down the generations and are still very much alive in the mountainous regions of Albania, Kosovo, western North Macedonia, lands formerly inhabited by Albanians like Montenegro and South Serbia and among the Arbëreshë in Italy and the Arvanites in Greece.
In Albanian mythology, the physical phenomena, elements and objects are attributed to supernatural beings. The deities are generally not persons, but animistic personifications of nature. The earliest attested cult of the Albanians is the worship of the Sun and the Moon. In Albanian folk beliefs, earth is the object of a special cult, and an important role is played by fire, which is considered a living, sacred or divine element used for rituals, sacrificial offerings and purification. Fire worship is associated with the cult of the Sun, the cult of the hearth and the cult of fertility in agriculture and animal husbandry. Besa is a common practice in Albanian culture, consisting of an oath taken by Sun, by Moon, by sky, by earth, by fire, by stone, by mountain, by water and by snake, which are all considered sacred objects. A widespread folk symbol is the serpent, a totem of the Albanians associated with earth, water, sun, hearth and ancestor cults, as well as destiny, good fortune and fertility. The cult of the Sun and the Moon also appears in Albanian legends and folk art.
Albanian myths and legends are organized around the dichotomy of good and evil, the most famous representation of which is the legendary battle between drangue and kulshedra, a conflict that symbolises the cyclic return in the watery and chthonian world of death, accomplishing the cosmic renewal of rebirth.
Official source
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