Slightly larger than maryland, albania is composed of two major regions: a mountainous highland region north, east, and south constituting 70% of the land area, and a western coastal lowland region that contains nearly all of the country's agricultural land and is the most densely populated part of albania. A battlefield in world war i, after the war it became a republic in which a conservative muslim landlord, ahmed zogu, proclaimed himself president in 1925 and king zog i in 1928. Communist guerrillas under enver hoxha seized power in 1944, near the end of world war ii. Hoxha was a devotee of stalin, emulating the soviet leader's repressive tactics, imprisoning or executing landowners and others who did not conform to the socialist ideal. Hoxha eventually broke with soviet communism in 1961 because of differences with khrushchev and then aligned himself with chinese communism, which he also abandoned in 1978 after the death of mao.

From then on albania went its own way to forge its individual version of the socialist state and became one of the most isolated mdash and economically underdeveloped mdash countries in the world. Albanian culture for kids food, festivals, clothes, language, and so much more 4.88 / 5 97.66% 77 votes albanians are a native balkan people who live in southern europe. Albanians live in ethnically compact settlements in large areas, primarily in albania, kosovo and macedonia, but also in montenegro and greece. Although there are some differences between the two cultural groups, they keep a strong national identity and ethnic culture. Albanian cuisine is typically balkan influenced by italian and turkish cuisines, but also ancient illyrian, roman and greek cooking. Most traditional albanian food consists of vegetables, spices, meats, fish, vinegar, yogurt and herbs. Albanian pies are generally made of thin pastry leaves which can be rolled out at home.

Pastry leaves are laid inside the baking pan and then sprinkled spinach with salt and cheese are added over the already laid pastry leaves. it is finished by covering the spinach with the rest of the pastry leaves and then baked. it is dry white beans, mixed with chopped onions, chopped parsley, salt, chili powder and olive oil. Peppers are stuffed with mince meat, rice, fried onions, chopped dill and parsley and placed on a tray for baking. Ground meat, bread crumbs, oil, onion, parsley, salt, pepper, and mint are mixed thoroughly and sprinkled with salt, oregano, and pepper. It is then rolled in flour and fried in hot oil and served hot with french fries or mashed potatoes.

Young people, but also adults, wear jeans, miniskirts, etc, similar with people from western world. Traditional clothing is made by specialized craftsmen and women with cotton, wool and silk. It is decorated with colors, embroidered symbols, themes like the albanian eagle, incorporating gold and silver. Clothing for women consists of bright and colorful embroidery and rich in detail. Clothing for men includes a white kilt, called a fustanella and long pant called tirqe that are worn with a long sleeved jacket or vest and a white felt hat, called qeleshe. They are worn by both men and women but they are made in a different colors and shapes. festivals, holidays, celebrations because of albanians history, ethnic and religious backgrounds, there are many cultural and arts festivals throughout the country.

It is celebrated on march 14 and it is intended to commemorate the end of winter, the rebirth of nature and a rejuvenation of spirit amongst the albanians. Gjirokastër national folklore festival is an artistic music festival that takes place every 5 years and is regarded as the most important event in albanian culture. The festival promotes albanian traditional music, dress and dance from albania, the diasporas, and albanian inhabited lands throughout the balkans. Kënga magjike magical song is another major musical event in albanian territories.

It is a great mixture of singers and bands from albania and neighboring countries. Songs from this contest have resulted in many hits for albanians throughout the world. It’s generally celebrated in many of the same ways, as it would be around the world. Albanians are very keen to celebrate christmas and new year eve. it is usually celebrated by staying up past midnight where fireworks are involved. It’s usually spent with family and friends and there are usually large feasts, sweets and drinking. Other albanian holidays arebayram day islamic holiday celebrating the end of ramadan, teacher’s day, mother teresa day, national youth day, liberation day, children’s day, may day, april’s fool day, etc. the fundamental theme of albanian folk tales is the struggle between good and evil.

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Usually readers assure that in the fantastic world of albanian folk literature the good always win out. One of the most famous legends is besa konstandinit constandis promise , or who brought doruntine back: doruntine was the only daughter in a family with 13 children. When doruntine was asked in marriage by a foreign prince, everyone in the family disagreed to let her go so far away.

Only constandin, the youngest of doruntines twelve brothers, wants to make her happy and promises his mother that hell bring doruntine back to see mother as soon as mother wants to. Also all twelve brothers agree to the marriage, but soon they all die in a war, constandin included. Mother cannot bear the loss of all of her children and not having even her daughter close to her at an old age, her mourning too heavy to bear. During her rage she curses her own dead son, constandin, who made her a promise he couldnt keep.

At the curse, constandin wakes up from death and brings doruntine back, because a mothers curse even after death, is worse than anything else. Constandin tells her to come immediately with him and brings doruntine back overnight on the back of his horse. She observes that he looks tired and that he is full of dust, but he tells her that its because of the long trip. When they arrive back home, he leaves her at the door and tells her that he has to go to take the horse inside the barn, but instead goes back to his grave.

Doruntine doesnt realize that she has travelled on his brothers horse when he was already dead, until she is told so by her mother. The finale is breathtaking because of the shock of the two women who realize that constandin has risen from the dead. another famous legend is rozafacastle. Rozafa was the castle associated with a famous legend about a woman who was buried in the foundation of the castle: three brothers were set about building the castle. They met a clever old man who advised them to sacrifice someone so that the walls would stand. Finally, they decided to sacrifice one of their wives who would bring lunch to them the next day. So they agreed that whichever of their wives was the one to bring them lunch the next day was the one who would be buried in the wall of the castle. The two older brothers, however, explained the situation to their wives that night, while the honest youngest brother said nothing. the next afternoon at lunch time, the brothers waited anxiously to see which wife was carrying the basket of food.

He explained to her what the deal was, that she was to be sacrificed and buried in the wall of the castle so that they could finish building it, and she didn’t protest. When finishing counting it will call out ready or not here i come and will go to search and look for other players. While it is searching, other children try to run to home base therefore it should be very careful. It will try to find and touch the hidden and running players before they reach the home base. verbal or nonverbal communication some nonverbal communications in albanian culture show drastic differences comparing to some other peoples’ culture around the world. It is very common for albanians to greet each other with a kiss or a hug, even between the same genders. albanians consider two men or two women walking hand in hand to standard behavior while in the united states, two men or women holding hands would indicate a romantic relationship.