Nevruz in Albania
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According to Gianfranco Bria:[9]
The Baktāshis claim to have adopted an ecumenical nationalist rhetoric to achieve a path of accommodation (at most, negotiation) with the secular and multi-confessional roots of Albanian civil religion. In this sense, the celebration of the Nevruz by Baktāshis aims to achieve two goals. The first is to legitimize the monopoly of so-called mysticism within Albanian society, incorporating everything that could be seen as esoteric and/or new-age to portray ‘Albanian ecumenical peculiarity’. The second is to involve the highest number of believers, especially the young (the majority of the population) who have grown up in a post-secular society and are fascinated by western socio-economic models, by mixing the Baktāshi tradition with progressive scientific and political rationalism.
During the 1990s
On the occasion of the Nevruz festival of 1991, the
International influence
Prominent Bektashi figureheads have organized public celebrations of Nevruz and Ashura, in order to "forge a link between creed, nation and progressivism".[12] Some foreign factors, such as the Iranian Embassy in Albania and some Alevi networks, have often voiced support for these public initiatives and rituals.[12] The Iranian government is known to have given cultural and political support in order to extend its own influence in the Balkans, without, however, affecting Bektashi autonomy.[12]
References
- ^ Bria 2020, p. 356.
- ^ Elsie 2019, pp. 2, 322.
- ^ "Nevruz in Albania in 2022". officeholidays.com. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Bria 2020, p. 367.
- ^ Bria 2020, p. 370, The Sunni community is apparently the greatest supporter of Nevruz: the Islamic community accepts Baktāshi worship, stating that its doctrine is coherent with traditional Islam in Albania..
- ^ Algar 1989, pp. 118–122.
- ^ Bria 2020, pp. 370–371.
- ^ Bria 2020, p. 371.
- ^ Bria 2020, p. 377.
- ^ Elsie 2019, p. 13
- ^ Bria 2019, p. 322.
- ^ a b c Bria 2019, pp. 322–323.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-71009-125-3.
- Bria, Gianfranco (2019). "Post-Socialist Sufi Revival in Albania: Public Marginality or Spiritual Privatisation?". Journal of Muslims in Europe. 8 (3). .
- Bria, Gianfranco (2020). "Celebrating Sultan Nevruz: Between Theological Debate and Multi-Framed Practice in Contemporary Albania". Studia Islamica. 114 (3): 355–377. .
- Elsie, Robert (2019). The Albanian Bektashi: History and Culture of a Dervish Order in the Balkans. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781788315715.