“March 14th is the Albanian holiday of “Verza” (short for Dita e Verës) - Summer’s Eve. It’s a relic of a pagan holiday from the time before Islam, before Catholicism, before the Albanian highlanders practiced organized religion. I took this photo in 1986 in the village of Shajna near Dragash, in the region Opoja on the border with Albania and North Macedonia. The day began with the coloring of Verza eggs. Fascinating how pagan rituals like this have survived into the modern era, shared by people of all religions and locales! In those days, teenage girls were most active in the celebration, as they were on most holidays, strolling through the village in little groups of three or four, happy and carefree, giggling, whispering, and celebrating the special freedom of the day. As darkness fell, bonfires began to appear on the village road. Teenage girls gathered around the fires to sing their Verza songs in the half-step harmony that sounds like home to Opojans. The boys stood around in the shadows, leaning into darkened doorways, watching the girls, listening to their songs. This beautiful ritual was actually nothing compared to how it used to be! In the old days, huge bonfires were lit. As the girls danced and sang around the fire, the boys would take turns leaping over the flames, showing off their fearlessness and prowess. Usually these efforts were lost on the girls gathered around, who, for the most part, were from the same village, related to them by blood, and thus unmarriageable. But the boys never knew when a guest from another village might be eyeing them for marriage to a sister or cousin. While that present-day Verza lacked the jumping lads, the blaze of the night fires and the midnight songs charged the night with energy and excitement.” Photo and caption by: @janet.reineck
