Albania and Astrophysics

100 years of Albanian State

Mimoza Hafizi
Department of Physics, Tirana University, Albania
International Workshop on Recent LHC Results and Related Topics
October 8-9, 2012, Tirana, Albania

Why?
An effort to find the special link between Albanians, the people
who lived forever in these lands, and their sky, perpetuated every
night and every season?

A kind of work designed for ethnologists or historians! Anyway, I

was convinced that astrophysicists could give a contribution in this
kind of knowledge.
Even as researchers of the no nation sky!

Bibliography
Gjurmt e nj kalendari primitiv n popullin ton-Rr. Zojzi, 1949
Gjurmime Albanologjike, 36, 2006-Folklor dhe Etnologji
Kngt e festave kalendarike-Afrdita Onuzi
La saga des calendriers-Jean Lefort, 1998
Fjalor Etnofolklorik-Fadil Podgorica
Etnologjia e Shqiptarve-Mark Tirta, 2005
Mitologjia ndr Shqiptar-Mark Tirta, 2004
Fjalor i Astronomis-Ramazan Hysa, 1978
Fjalori Enciklopedik Shqiptar
Hoxh Hasan Tahsin Efendiu-1998

I. The Albanian Sky for an Orientation in Time

1. Natural clocks
The main astronomical body which served to measure the time is the
Sun. Its visible trajectory in the daylight sky corresponds to the daily
rotation of the Earth around its own axis.
The ancient Albanians observed this motion and estimated enough
regular to use it as a natural clock.

In fact, even in the elaborated science of 40 years ago, this motion

was the basis for the definition of the time unity, the second. Only at
the end of 20th century humans created objects which release signals
more accurate than this motion-atomic clocks. The definition of the
time unity changed in 1972.

Orientation in Time-Pash
Two ways to use the Suns position for measuring the time
1 pash

Guess the position of the Sun in its path from sunrise at East to sunset
at West. The unity was pash or hosten.
Suns trajectory was devised in 6 parts, 6 pash:
3 pash: the midday (about 10h30 at Universal Time, +1 in winter and +2
in summer local time)
6 pash: the sunset
2 pash: 2/3 of the morning.

Orientation in Time-Kmb
Measure the extent of the mans shade, towards the East or the West. In the midday
there is no such kind of shadow. The unity of this time is called kmb=foot4050cm, depending on mans height:
2 kmb shadow towards the East=2 hours after the midday
3 kmb shadow towards the West=three hours to reach the midday.

In fact, the shadows length is not a linear function

of time. It can be directly shown that

shadows length= h*tg (t/12)

t is time in hours, h is the mans height.
Only for time till 2-3 hours around the zenit, this
relation can be considered linear,

shadows length= (h/12)*t

1 kmb= h/12 1 hour
For a man of 1m80, 1 kmb=47 cm; for me 42
cm, which is in fact my real footstep.

Orientation in Time-Night
In general, there was no special need to
estimate the time during the night, except for
travelers.
There are some places where the approaching
of the dawn was signed by a special group of
stars, Pleiades, (Shejzat-Signs-in Albanian). I
verified that in our sky, Pleiades rise up before
dawn during summer months. I found also that
in different ancient cultures of the north
hemisphere, Pleiades announce the beginning
of the harvest period.
The most important celestial object used to
announce the approaching of the morning is
Venus, Afrdita in Albanian= (near the day). In
some Albanian regions it is named the
shepherds star.

Pleiades, an open group of

stars in Taurus constellation.
It contains more than a
thousand of stars, 43 lightyears away from us.

I. The Albanian Sky for an Orientation in Time

2. Calendars
Calendars of different ancient populations-the way of measuring the day, month
and year-have usually been set by the Sun and Moon celestial apparent
movements. They are called solar, lunar or lunisolar calendars.
Concerning to the calendar of our ancestors, I refer here to some serious studies
carried out by ethnologists. Their conclusions are mainly based on
the most important traditional popular festivities (pagan holidays!)
the remnants in the collective memory of some ancient ways of counting the days.
These remnants are found in most hilly and isolated regions of our lands.

The ethnologists consistently deduce to the existence of an ancient and very

special calendar, which I found very interesting. It is a solar calendar, its base is
the solar year (named in Albanian vit or motmot).

Orientation in Time-Ancient Calendar

The East side of Albania, where the Sun rises every morning, is
covered by high mountains.

The crests of mountains help to observe that the Sun rises in different
places day after day; they help to mark the Suns position every day.

People observed that the sunrise position oscillates around an origin (the
equinox) and have two edges (solstices).
They counted the number of days for a whole wavering, 365 days. The
motmot is 365 days long.

Orientation in Time-Ancient Calendar

Only two seasons: summer and winter, each one 180 days.
The first day of the year might have been the day of the spring equinox-event known
as kryet e motmotit-the corresponding event nowadays is called Shngjergj (Saint
George). The festivity lasted 3 days.
At the autumn equinox there was another event, nowadays known as Shn Mitr
(Saint Martin) or Shmart. The festivity lasted 2 days.
Altogether we have 365 days: 2x180+3+2=365. The counting of days was referred to
Shngjergj and Shmart, f.e.:10 days after Shngjergj or 15 before Shmart. To facilitate,
they added two more fixed points, at the middle of each season: one day at midsummer, nowadays known as Shn Gjon (Saint John), the other at the mid- winter,
nowadays Buzmi or Krshndellat (Christmas).
Furthermore, four more fixed points are introduced for devising in two, each of the
above mentioned four periods. These days are associated with the harvest, the fruit
collection, etc.
This ancient calendar has therefore 8 months of 45 days each one. They are not real
months, as they are not related to Moon phases. The ancient Albanians did not know
the month of 30 days, it entered too late. There is no trace that the Moon had served
as a time indicator in our lands.

Day of festivity

Astronomical
event

Actual date
(gregorian)

When is celebrated
today

Shn Gjergj,
3 days

Spring Equinox

21 Mars

23 April (Julian) or 6
Mai (Gregorian)

Name of the month45

Qershor?=Cherry
Harvest

5 Mai

?
Korrik=Harvest

Shngjin

Summer Solstice

Fruit collection

22 June

23-26 June

6 August

Mid-August

Djegagur=Burn Stone
Vjeshta=Automn

Shmart, 2 days

Automn Equinox

Shnkoll
Buzmi, Kolendra

Winter Solstice

22 September

26 October

6 November

End November
beginning December

22 December

Bryms=Frost

24 December
Ngrijs=Freeze

Day of Summer

5 February

Other Shngjergj

21 Mars

1 Mars (Julian), 15
Mars (Gregorian)
Pranvera=Near
23 April (Julian) or 6 Summer
Mai (Gregorian)

Orientation in Time-Ancient Calendar

In the last column we find the origin of the names for some months in our
actual calendar: Qershor=Cherry, Korrik=Harvest. February in our actual
calendar is Shkurt=Short, January only several decades before was Kallnuer,
a name originated from calendar.
I adored some similarities with the Republican Calendar in France, at the
point of view of the poetic sense: Messidor is our Korrik-Harvest, Termidor
is the Djegagur=Stoneburn; Brumaire and Bryms.
This time-division has a purely agricultural origin. Religious names are
adopted late after.
The corresponding dates of festivities refer here to the traditions of
northern Albania. The clear discordance in the case of equinoxes I justified
with climate reasons.
We do not know how the 1/4 missing day from the true year (365 instead of
365,24) was arranged.

Orientation in Time-Medieval Calendar

Till the ottoman invasion (15th century), the documents show
that the official calendar in our lands was the Julian calendar.
This calendar established in 46 BC by Jules Cesar, was
centralized by the church. It is changed by the catholic pope
Gregory in 1582.
After the invasion, the ottoman calendar was the official one,
whereas the different Albanian communities used the Julian
(named ala-frenga) or ottoman (named ala-turca) calendar,
depending on the religion. The ottoman calendar is lunar one.
With the Independence Proclamation, 1912, Gregorian
calendar was the official calendar of the Albanian state.

II. Albanian ethnos and Albanian sky-Cults

Cults of Nature
It is affirmed since longtime that the cults of nature are stronger than the cult of
God.
The cult of Sun
Is expressed in vows, oaths: For the sky and for the earth; for this day; for this ray
of sun
The motives of Sun are used everywhere in ornaments at dressing, in different
works like stone carving, wood carving, metal, tattoo, etc.
The veneration of the Sun is expressed by honoring the mountains. Pilgrims visit
every year peaks of mountains like Tomorr, Kruja.
Is seen in ceremonies of flames during different periods of the year.
The cult of the Moon
The Moon is considered protector of girls. In legends, Sun and Moon are decisive
for the running of events. Sun and Moon are considered brother and sister or
husband and wife.
The eclipses are considered fearful events, like curses.

II. Albanian ethnos and Albanian sky-names

Some original names, mainly with farming connotation
For Constellations

Kashta e Kumtrit=Hay of Godfather-Milky Way

Grand Ours, Small Ours-Big Oxcart, Small Oxcart
For some groups that I cannot identify with official constellations:

Cows
Two thieves and two bulls
The field

III. Astrophysics-teaching and research

Hasan Tahsin (1811-1881)
Studied astronomy in Paris; Founded the Istanbul University in 1868, the first university of
the Ottoman Empire; Was the first rector of this university; Was professor of astronomy,
physics and chemistry; Wrote several scientific papers in accordance with the most
advanced knowledge of his time.
XX Century
Teaching at lyceum
Before the Second War, Astronomy was taught inside geography; After 1946, it was set up
as a separated matter, first based on a Russian textbook translated in Albanian; Later there
was an Albanian textbook written for students of lyceum; After 2000 it is taught as a
chapter inside physics.
Teaching at the university
Since the foundation of mathematics and physics branch at Tirana University, astronomy
was a separated matter; Firstly it aimed astrometry and celestial mechanics and was
taught by mathematicians; After 1990 it becomes a subject concerning entirely the
physicists; Since 2003 we have a 20 cm telescope.

III. Astrophysics-research
Scientific research in astrophysics during these 15 last years:

8 diplomas, 4 master diplomas and 2 PHD works on:

White Dwarfs
Inflation
Quintessence
GRB
Gravitational Microlensing
Extra-solar planets

Thanks
Prof. Mina Naqo
Prof. Aferdita Onuzi
Floriana for the designs