As Tirana is the capital of Albania, there are numerous events to follow daily. Those events start from having a coffee at the countless cozy cafes around the city, to having a warm wine at the Skanderbeg Square, checking out the Museums and exhibitions at various galleries, nightlife, the numerous movies at the cinemas, or get inspired by the strong comeback of the National Theatre with its many shows at various locations.
For Christmas Eve, the Municipality of Tirana and the Agency for Parks and Recreations will be organizing the annual ‘’Christmas in Tirana’’ concert at the stage of Skanderbeg Square on Dec. 24 at 7 p.m.. The symphonies of the most beloved Christmas carols, Noel, La Spagnola, Sing-Sing, Feliz Navidad, Silent Night, Jingle Bang, etc., will be played by the Tirana woodwind orchestra. The carols will be sang by Armando Kllogjeri, Ardita Meni, Linda Kazani and Suzana Frasheri, and the concert will be conducted by Valmir Xoxe.
For Dec. 25, the Christmas day, the charity organization EcoVolis will organize the annual ‘’Cook an extra plate’’ which is a charity event by cooking extra food and giving it away to the less fortunate. EcoVolis is stationed at Mother Teresa Square that day and will be gathering the food given by people and volunteers and then dispersing it to poor families. The idea behind this charity event is to make the less fortunate people feel as part of a greater family and closer to the community they inhabit, since Christmas is about family and spreading love.
“But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys,’’ wrote Charles Dickens in his A Christmas Carol.
