Culture
Pjetër Bogdani (ca. 1630 - 1689), known in Italian as Pietro Bogdano, is the most original writer of early literature in Albania. He is author of the Cuneus Prophetarum (The Band of the Prophets), 1685, the first prose work of substance written originally in Albania. Born in Gur i Hasit, Has, near Kukës district, Albania about 1630, Bogdani was educated in the traditions of the Catholic Church to which he devoted all his energy. His uncle Andrea or Ndre Bogdani (ca. 1600-1683) was Archbishop of Skopje and author of a Latin-Albanian grammar, now lost.
Culturally, Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia are closely related with Kosovo and Albania. The common flag, the national hymn, the common history, national folk songs, language, etc. are only among some of the factors that prove the close relation between Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia, and those in Kosovo and Albania.
Education in Albanian language is provided in all levels, including university levels, such as State University of Tetovo, South East European University, also in Tetovo.
The spoken dialect of Albanian is mainly Gheg, and Tosk in parts of the south.
The main religion among Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia is Islam, though there are some who are Roman Catholic, with the most prominent member Agnes Bojaxhiu, also known as Mother Teresa.
There are also a few Orthodox Christian Albanian villages located in Gostivar, Reka, and scattered in the southeast. They are remnants of a once larger Albanian Orthodox population in the area, and some fear that they will be "assimilated and forgotten".
Read more about this topic: Albanians In The Republic Of Macedonia
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Our culture has become something that is completely and utterly in love with its parent. It’s become a notion of boredom that is bought and sold, where nothing will happen except that people will become more and more terrified of tomorrow, because the new continues to look old, and the old will always look cute.”
—Malcolm McLaren (b. 1946)
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
“What culture lacks is the taste for anonymous, innumerable germination. Culture is smitten with counting and measuring; it feels out of place and uncomfortable with the innumerable; its efforts tend, on the contrary, to limit the numbers in all domains; it tries to count on its fingers.”
—Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)