TIRANA, March 22 /ATA/ – Albania’s Bektashi community celebrate the Sultan Nowruz Day, Imam Ali‘s birthday, on Tuesday.
Sultan Nowruz Day marks the beginning of the new year, according to the Bektashi sect, and coincides with the birthday of Imam Ali at the Kaaba. On this day everything is revived, there is hope, a resurrection for all mankind. It is a new day when everyone is hoping for a better future.
In Albania the Day of Sultan Nowruz was declared a national holiday in 1996 and it is closely linked to the Bektashi Sufi order.
Nowruz is considered a pan-Albanian holiday dear to all and central to religious harmony. For followers of the Sufi order, Nowruz is marked as the commemoration of the birth of Imam Ali, the fourth Islamic caliph, while for secular Albanians its celebration is linked to the beginning of spring.
Tirana, Albania is home of the Bektashi World Center. The Bektashi Sect is largely located in the country’s south, while it has a considerable extension in the territory of the Republic of Albania. The Bektashis are also spread in Kosovo and North Macedonia, where, alongside the Sunnis, they constitute the Albanian population of Muslim faith.
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