TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, April 24 – Albanians all around the country celebrated Easter Sunday accompanied by their top politicians.
Thou8sands of Albanian immigrants entered Albania to celebrate Easter at their homes, mainly coming from neighboring Greece in the south. Long queues were created at the border crossing points in the south. Pope Benedict XVI marked the holiest night of the year for Christians celebrating Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and gives his traditional Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including Albanian.
The Easter Vigil is the most important liturgy on the church’s calendar, when the faithful mark the passage from Christ’s death to his resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is rich with symbols: fire and light signifying Jesus’ resurrection, and the water used to baptize people into the faith.
On Saturday night, Benedict baptized six adults from Switzerland, Albania, Russia, Peru, Singapore and China, pouring water over their heads as he prayed. Religious faith in Albania was banned 1967-1990 by the then-communist dictatorship.
Repression and international isolation under the militantly atheistic regime, which banned all forms of religious expression, has today forged an original mix of faith, superstition, folk lore and tolerance.
The majority of Albania’s population of almost three million is Muslim but there are strong Orthodox and Catholic minorities too. Albania was Christian when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century and many of its people converted to Islam in order to get jobs in the Ottoman administration. In an example that persists today, Albanians who want to emigrate to neighboring Greece, an EU member, try to change their identity to prove they belong to Albania’s Greek minority נand in the process convert to Orthodox Christianity.
Marriages between Muslims and Christians are frequent and many Albanians are at loss to say which religion they practice.
