Re: Dita e Verës (14 March) [OT}

On 15/03/2025 5:31 a.m., Jeff Barnett wrote:

On 3/14/2025 12:03 AM, Ross Clark wrote:

On 14/03/2025 5:35 p.m., Jeff Barnett wrote:

On 3/13/2025 5:30 PM, Ross Clark wrote:

"an Albanian spring festival and pagan holiday....for the beginning of the spring-summer period."
Celebrated officially on 14 March in Albania, unofficially in other countries where there are Albanians.

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I'm curious: What does "pagan" mean in this context? And in general, what image or reaction is the word supposed to conjure in general?

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My guess is that Dita e Verës is believed to date from before the Albanians were Christians -- or Muslims. (People say that about a lot of present-day festivals or customs; it's not necessarily true.) I don't think it has anything to do with how the day is celebrated now.

 My question was prompted by our (current v. past) usage of the word "pagan"; not by curiosity about the festival. Since these threads are attended to by people with cultural interests in addition to linguistic background and interests, I thought it would be a good place to ask.

Sure. I was responding to your first question, suggesting what the Wikipedia writer that I quoted meant by it ("in this context").
As for the broader use of that word, I agree that modern usage has gone way beyond the original sense of "non-Christian" or "not belonging to one of the Major Religions". The first dictionary I picked up (Concise Oxford, 8th ed, 1990) had a sense: "identifying divinity or spirituality in nature; pantheistic'. I think that extension of meaning has gone along with a value inversion, where "pagan" can now be seen as a positive quality.