Dielli (Albanian paganism)

Solar symbols that commonly appear in Albanian traditional art, including tattooing, grave art, jewellery, embroidery, and house carvings.^[1]

Ballokume, Albanian cookie originating in the city of Elbasan in central Albania but very popular among Albanians (left); Flia (meaning "sacrifice"), northern Albanian dish (right). They are figurative representations of the Sun, traditionally eaten during Dita e Verës or Verëza – an Albanian pagan spring festival, celebrated by all Albanians (also officially in Albania) to drive away the darkness of the winter season allowing nature's renewal and for the strengthening of the Sun, traditionally by litting bonfires (zjarre) in yards everywhere, especially on high places.

Dielli (Albanian indefinite form Diell), the Sun, holds the primary role in Albanian pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths, and legends. Albanian major traditional festivities and calendar rites are based on the Sun, worshiped as the god of light, sky and weather, giver of life, health and energy, and all-seeing eye.^[2] In Albanian tradition the fire – zjarri, evidently also called with the theonym Enji – worship and rituals are particularly related to the cult of the Sun. Ritual calendar fires or bonfires are traditionally kindled before sunrise in order to give strength to the Sun and to ward off evil.^[3] Many rituals are practiced before and during sunrise, honoring this moment of the day as it is believed to give energy and health to the body.^[4] As the wide set of cultic traditions dedicated to him indicates, the Albanian Sun-god appears to be an expression of the Proto-Indo-European Sky-god (Zot or Zojz in Albanian).^[5]

Albanians were firstly described in written sources as worshippers of the Sun and the Moon by German humanist Sebastian Franck in 1534,^[6] but the Sun and the Moon have been preserved as sacred elements of Albanian tradition since antiquity. Illyrian material culture shows that the Sun was the chief cult object of the Illyrian religion.^[7] Finding correspondences with Albanian folk beliefs and practices, the Illyrian Sun-deity is figuratively represented on Iron Age plaques from Lake Shkodra as the god of the sky and lightning, also associated with the fire altar where he throws lightning bolts.^[8] The symbolization of the cult of the Sun, which is often combined with the crescent Moon, is commonly found in a variety of contexts of Albanian folk art, including traditional tattooing, grave art, jewellery, embroidery, and house carvings.^[9] Solemn oaths (be), good omens, and curse formulas, involve and are addressed to, or taken by, the Sun.^[10] Prayers to the Sun, ritual bonfires, and animal sacrifices have been common practices performed by Albanians during the ritual pilgrimages on mountain tops.^[11]

In Albanian the god who rules the sky is referred to as i Bukuri i Qiellit ("the Beauty of the Sky"), a phrase that is used in pagan contexts for the Sun, the god of light and giver of life who fades away the darkness of the world and melts the frost, allowing the renewal of Nature.^[12] According to folk beliefs, the Sun makes the sky cloudy or clears it up.^[13] Albanian rituals for rainmaking invoke the Sky and the Sun.^[14] In Albanian tradition the Sun is referred to as an "eye", which is a reflection of the Indo-European belief according to which the Sun is the eye of the Sky-God *Di̯ḗu̯s^[15] (Zojz in Albanian tradition^[16]). According to folk beliefs, the Sun is all-seeing, with a single glance he possesses the ability to see the entire surface of the Earth. The Sun, referred to as "the all-seeing (big) eye" is invoked in solemn oaths (be), and information about everything that happens on Earth is asked to the all-seeing Sun in ritual songs.^[17][18] In Albanian pagan beliefs and mythology the Sun is animistically personified as a male deity. The Moon (Hëna) is his female counterpart.^[19][20] In pagan beliefs the fire hearth (vatra e zjarrit) is the symbol of fire as the offspring of the Sun.^[21] In some folk tales, myths and legends the Sun and the Moon are regarded as husband and wife, also notably appearing as the parents of E Bija e Hënës dhe e Diellit ("the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun"); in others the Sun and the Moon are regarded as brother and sister, but in this case they are never considered consorts.^[22][23] Nëna e Diellit ("the Mother of the Sun" or "the Sun's Mother") also appears as a personified deity in Albanian folk beliefs and tales.^[24]

Albanian beliefs, myths and legends are organized around the dualistic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, which cyclically produces the cosmic renewal.^[25] The most famous representation of it is the constant battle between drangue and kulshedra, which is seen as a mythological extension of the cult of the Sun and the Moon, widely observed in Albanian traditional art.^[26] In Albanian traditions, kulshedra is also fought by the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun, who uses her light power against pride and evil,^[27] or by other heroic characters marked in their bodies by the symbols of celestial objects,^[28] such as Zjermi (lit. "the Fire"), who notably is born with the Sun on his forehead.^[29]