Buffalo, Ram and Rooster in Family Ceremony Rituals

Abstract

While many populations of the world have preserved animals and birds in order to improve living conditions, Albanians have coexisted with them and many times even mythologized them to the extreme comparing them with humans. Bulls, rams and roosters have played a major role in family ritual rituals in birth, wedding, death and other festivities such as the opening of new foundations, the beginning of plantings, yearly festivals and everything related to family ceremonies. While cows, bulls and rams are also considered gifts for some family ceremonies, especially at weddings, the rooster has replaced the absence of the groom. So, simply in all cases when for well-known reasons the groom was absent, the rooster entered the groom accompanied by songs and ceremonies. Apart from wedding rites, where their presence is greater and more rituals, there are, rams and roosters have also taken an important place in death rites, where their ritual power depends on the provincial units and the beliefs and superstitions, who have accompanied family ceremonies. In this paper, which is part of a large project of my research "Bull, ram and rooster in the Albanian tradition", with some special specifics I will stop to talk about the role of these animals and birds in wedding rites, death and laying the foundation of the house. I will try to give a geographical map of Albanian lands, when their role is present in family ceremonies and ritual differences between Albanian ethnographic areas.