Nostalgia/ How Albanians celebrated New Year in 1990

2026-01-01 14:07:00, Lifestyle CNA

New Year's celebrations in Albania have undergone significant changes over the past two decades, both in the importance given to this holiday and in the way it is celebrated. New Year's was one of the most important traditional holidays in Albania before 1990, bringing together families and friends in a special festive atmosphere.

At that time, the lack of modern technology, such as mobile phones and social networks, made communication more personal. To congratulate each other, the most used tool were New Year's cards, which were exchanged between friends and relatives, conveying wishes written with care and feeling.

Even after the 1990s, the tradition of postcards continued for a while, but over time it began to fade. Today, this mode of communication has almost disappeared, giving way to virtual greetings.

Nostalgia/ How Albanians celebrated New Year in 1990

Preparing the fir tree

Buying or finding a fir tree was an important ritual that was thought about since the beginning of December. The children of the family would apply all the knowledge learned in the “Handicraft” subject and a competition would begin to make the most beautiful ribbons, stars or New Year’s cards. If you were lucky, your mother would allow you to use a vine to place and create writings on the windows. Those who could not afford a fir tree would decorate the eagle or the ficus tree they kept in the kitchen.

Nostalgia/ How Albanians celebrated New Year in 1990

End-of-year shopping

The special thing about the last days of the year was the way the city was buzzing until late hours, full of people rushing to buy the last things they needed. The shops and activities were full of queues and family members with shopping assignments, even bread, seeing that everything would then close for two days.

Thorough cleaning of the house

If you were a child during the dictatorship, you remember those cold mornings when every window was open because the airing was starting. Curtains, windows, carpets, sheets, sideboards, closets, everything had to be clean and sparkling for the New Year to be as auspicious as possible.

New Year's menu

Even today, the old New Year's menu generates clicks and interest. It included: a chicken or turkey that could have been taken earlier and fed in the bath, Baklava, kadaif, raki, wine, Kombinat Uqsimor beers, Russian salad, fried potatoes and yogurt sauce, which are still part of the New Year's dinner today. The ovens were full and children went up and down to get the baked baklava or chicken and cheese casserole.

Family visits

Anyone who lived through those times or was a child cannot have forgotten the grueling visits to family members that began at noon on January 1st and continued for several days in a row. The first person to enter the house was very important, as was the foot with which the step was taken. The ritual was for children to be the first to enter the homes of relatives or neighbors so that the determined "fate" would be white.