So you want to know about Albanian culture.

Culture is a very abstract thing to explain so let’s start from the vehicle of culture which is language of course.

Albanian language is an Indo-European language and occupies an independent branch of such tree of languages. This was demonstrated by the philologist Franz Bopp in 1854 . In more simple terms it means that Albanian is the only representative of its group just like Greek or Armenean language. It survived Greek and Slavic influence and almost 500 years of Ottoman invasion and was written for the first time on 1462. This is the date of the oldest still surviving documents written in Albanian which is Baptismal formula, Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spertit Senit.

Albanian mythology Albanian myths can be divided into two major groups: legends of metamorphosis and historical legends. That would need a book of 2000 pages to explain so please read Albanian mythology - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_mythology) and Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Songs_of_the_Frontier_Warriors) The guys that already did the book of Albanian myth and folk tales were different European scholars such as Johann Georg von Hahn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_von_Hahn), the Austrian consul in Janina (Ioannina (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioannina)), Karl H. Reinhold (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Reinhold) and Giuseppe Pitrè (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Pitr%C3%A8).

Albanian music and dance Music of Albania - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Albania) I’m looking forward to the wedding party of my cousin in September so that I can sing again those beautiful songs we sing all together in my family each time in such occasions. Something worth to note is that a particular genre of Albanian polyphonic music Albanian iso-polyphony - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_iso-polyphony) is is included in UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_Intangible_Cultural_Heritage_Lists) list. What I would very much like to go and see is the Gjirokastër National Folklore Festival - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjirokast%C3%ABr_National_Folklore_Festival)

Culture is also about dressing so have a look below on traditional dress of Albanians which vary from region to region.

Besa You may have already heard about Albanian Besa which is a way of behaving inside society. I would say it is more a world view. If not, here you can find more about it Besa (Albanian culture) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besa_(Albanian_culture))

Finally, I think that culture in general is something that breathes, it is alive just like the human beings that identify with it. Culture keeps changing and evolving and in this sense my post is intended to capture only a picture of Albanian old culture.
Nowadays, many Albanians identify more with European culture and values but what shaped them culturally is exactly what this posts indicates.
There is a lot more about Albanian culture that a simple post can’t contain. For now, I hope that this post helped on expanding your culture :-)

This post appeared first at my Quora profile here

https://www.quora.com/What-is-Albanian-culture/answer/Alket-Cecaj