Last Saturday, on the 6th of June, the south-eastern city of Korca held “The Korca Carnival Day.” The city inaugurated these festivities with such an outpouring of merriment for the beginning of the tourist season. This is the third consecutive year that the city opens the tourist season with the Carnival of Kor衠festivities, according to the press (Shqip, 6.06.2009). From a local festival, the Carnival of Kor衠has become attractive not only to the mainstream Albanian community but also to regional visitors, beginning to give the event an international flavor.
Almost 500 persons in costume, as well as 20 carnival groups, were seen in the streets of Kor衬 coming from Fier, Kavaja Shkodra and Tiranacities in north, central and southern Albania), as well as from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia.
Two distant Albanian towns held their own carnival and established in pre-second-world-war their own tradition. The north-western city of Shkod철and the south-eastern city of Kor諠held yearly carnival at least since the beginning of the 20th century. Photographs of the Marubbi family show carnival processions in the streets of Shkod첬 at the beginning of the century. But this tradition grew fainter and fainter during the communist years and was finally ground to oblivion. The Carnival of Kor諠remained famous through the theatre play under the same name written by Spiro Comorra. Tradition had the Carnival of Kor諠feted with merriment and songs, with mandolins and guitars and groups of festival participants walking by and singing humorous songs. The city of Kor諠is seeking to revive this tradition.
