Hëna (Albanian paganism)
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Hëna (Albanian indefinite form Hënë; Gheg: Hana, indef. Hanë), the Moon, holds a prominent position in Albanian pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths, and legends. In Albanian traditions the Moon's cyclical phases have regulated many aspects of life, defining agricultural and livestock activities, various crafts, and human body.[1]
Albanians were firstly described in written sources as worshippers of the Sun and the Moon by German humanist Sebastian Franck in 1534,[2] but the Sun and the Moon have been preserved as sacred elements of Albanian tradition since antiquity.[3] The symbolization of the crescent Moon, often combined with the Sun, is commonly found in a variety of contexts of Albanian folk art, including traditional tattooing, grave art, jewellery and house carvings.[4]
In Albanian pagan beliefs and mythology the Moon is a personified female deity, and the Sun (Dielli) is her male counterpart.[5][6] In some folk tales, myths and legends the Moon and the Sun are regarded as wife and husband, 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.[7][8] In Old Albanian the name Hana/Hanë was attested also as a theonym – the Albanian rendering of Roman goddess Diana.[9]
Albanian beliefs, myths and legends are organized around the dualistic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, which cyclically produces the cosmic renewal.[10] 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.[11] 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,[12] or by other heroic characters marked in their bodies by the symbols of celestial objects, including in particular the Moon.[13] Among Albanians the dualism between black/darkness and white/light is also remarkably represented by the Moon's phases, which symbolize both fertility (increase) and sterility (decrease).[14]