"Dead bodies" & Supersitions

I couldn't believe my eyes. Was that a... a... body hanging off the roof of that unfinished house?? This was last month while I was in Albania with a friend. I thought, "Surely my eyes are playing tricks on me," but I was driving so I couldn't use my hands rub the image away.

As my friend in the passenger seat had grown up in Albania, I blurted out the question to her, "Did you see that... uh.. what looked like a dead body on that house??"

"Oh yes," she stated in bemusement at my wonder, "they are all over. It is a tradition." And as she said this I spotted many more.. uh.. scarecrowish things gracing the houses we past in rural Albania. I was so facinated that I simply had to stop and take pictures. This amused my friend even more because I was reacting to something that she knew as commonplace. While to me it was something we'd see in the US only at Halloween.


My friend then patiently explained to me the superstition and tradition behind these (though she herself does not believe this way). Basically, the placing of dolls, straw dummies, stuffed animals, garlic and/or flags is believed to scare ghosts away. You'll find them on houses in the building process as well as on finished homes to protect the property and people who live there. Kind-of like a sacrifice of sorts. If it's not done and something happens, it's blamed on the fact that the talisman was not posted.

This reminds me a lot of the practice known as "kurban" here. Basically, the workers/contractors will kill a goat (or lamb) and sprinkle it's blood on the buildings foundation. Then the meat will be grilled and the meal shared amongst themselves. Then the bones are buried into the foundation. The belief is that this will protect the workers, the property, as well as the future inhabitants from evil or harm.

I wonder if the placing of the dolls and flags in Albania is part of that tradition, only perhaps morphed over time. Or, maybe the kurban is done as well? Honestly, I don't know, but I find it all quite fascinating. On the other hand, I wonder if that's why so many flags fly in Kosovo, specifically in Kosovar Albanian towns and homes. Yes, it's more true that now-days the flags are flown for national and ethnic pride, but I wonder if originally, perhaps generations ago now, that they were flown with the same purpose as the ones my friend and I saw in rural Albania?

Superstition runs deep in the culture here. My friend and I had an interesting conversation about all of this and what or Whom we place our faith and hope in each day and voiced concern and prayer for those who live with the fear that superstition brings. Personally, I can't imagine the level of fear one must live in, thinking things like:

"Will this doll be enough?"

"Should I place just one more flag?"

"Will my family and I be protected from evil?"

"I'd better knock on wood just to be sure."

People put all their faith in these things, all their hope, to protect and deliver them from evil. Yet what happens to that faith and hope when these things fail? What new level of fear is introduced?... Would you pray with me that people be set free from these fears and that they would know eternal hope, where their faith can confidently be placed.