FLASH
Shkruar nga Ben Andoni
It should be a day of peace. They should celebrate it in Albania and turn it into a beautiful ritual to recognize the patriotic side of the country.
It is a holiday which, for the sake of what we say and claim about the Nation and our pathetic patriotism, we could give due weight to throughout our civil space. The date is well-known, November 28, and is associated with the Raising of the Flag in Vlora by a group of patriots, led by Ismail Qemali, and the beginning of the journey of our modern state.
In the great historical coincidences that sometimes happen and not so suddenly, on the same date, Gjergj Kastrioti, our National Hero, raised almost the same flag in Kruja, in the distant year 1443. And, on the same date, Adem Jashari, the hero of Kosovo, more precisely the man who became a legend for the KLA, has his birthday. We are not listing other days.
This date has remained strange to Albania, since November 29th lost all its splendor during the years of communism and it happened that not only students would make mistakes, but more indoctrinated people would not share which was the greatest date. The date that gave birth to the Albanian state or the one that was identified with the liberation of the last Albanian city, Shkodra. This also held a great weight of importance in the minds of the locals, but also the patriots of the diaspora. It must be said that they were the first to show the broad Albanian masses the true importance of November 28th, in the years of democracy. It was the time when the DP and the SP started one of the greatest historical quarrels, to identify the character of the war and to point arrows at each other from their leaders and even the militants about the importance of the dates of November 28-29.
Even today, if you say good things about nationalists, you are looked down upon by the Left. If you dare and say that: Albanians fought with their own capabilities against fascists and collaborators, then you will clash with the Right. And if you add the character of the Civil War, you will be entangled with both. But what does 28 have to do with it? The political parties still celebrate it separately, in the same space and leave no room for revenge on others. And yet the choreography of the celebration has changed. When you remember what was done for the 100th anniversary of Independence and the celebrations of the Basha era, you cannot leave this time without appreciating it. At least for the festive protocol. At customs points everywhere today, a flag was given, in cities it was celebrated with local capabilities, and as usual, Kosovo was represented at the highest level.
The "small" problem is the weight it is taking among Albanians. Many still have it uncultivated that they should respect its form. They should honor and regularly congratulate their relatives and everyone. It should be a day of peace. They should celebrate it in Albania and turn it into a beautiful ritual to recognize the patriotic part of the country. And, above all, they should make the country red-and-blue.
But, instead, our cities were empty, not simply from migration (national gangrene), but from tourism, the rush to flee the country. There are four days of holidays in a row and the airport is full; the border in the direction outside Albania is loaded with rows of cars; offers abound and Albanians celebrate it abroad quite a bit. Of course, it is a status of well-being, but not so much patriotism. Therefore, November 28 often seems to us as the holiday of a few Albanians, those who never forgot to congratulate it sincerely (and they are a part that constitutes the true DNA of the nation) and politicians, who need this date for rhetoric. Even those who make pencils between Skanderbeg and Ismail Qemali, and they are forgiven.
Albanians are not forgiven for the madness of the Halloween Festival and the way they book everything in the country for a holiday that has now transformed like everywhere else in the world from a beautiful pagan holiday into a celebration of debauchery. But who would know. Halloween, this ancient druidic holiday, which the Celtic peoples celebrated for millennia and marked the transition from the last golden rays of summer and the entrance to the darkness of winter; the delicate and balanced change of the year before it was completely given over to darkness; a time for the souls of the deceased to close their eyes, to see and perhaps to travel through the void, has now become a world holiday of madness. The time to celebrate livestock and agricultural work is now over in total urbanization.
It is true that the world turned it into a holiday of horror and madness that requires expenses, macabre props often coming from the images of the darkness of death and ghosts. While Albania into a holiday that has already swallowed every holiday. And, where even November 28 seems unfortunately small for a collective madness, which cannot understand the difficult survival of Albanians over the centuries. Halloween has unfortunately also ruined the National Day.
Lini një Përgjigje