Hëna (Albanian paganism)

Hëna (Albanian indefinite form Hënë; Gheg: Hana, indef. Hanë), the Moon, holds a prominent position in Albanian pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths, and legends.

Albanians were firstly described in written sources as worshippers of the Sun and the Moon by German humanist Sebastian Franck in 1534, but the Sun and the Moon have been preserved as sacred elements of Albanian tradition since antiquity. 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.

In Albanian pagan beliefs and mythology the Moon is a personified female deity, and the Sun (Dielli) is her male counterpart. 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. In Old Albanian the name Hana/Hanë was attested also as a theonym – the Albanian rendering of Roman goddess Diana.

In Albanian traditions the different phases of the moon have determined influences on agricultural and livestock activities and on those related to various crafts, but also on several human aspects.

Name

The Albanian word hënë (definite form: hëna; Gheg: hanë, def. hana) is generally considered to be from the Late Indo-European *skond-nah₂ "the shiny one".

As an Albanian theonym, Hana/Hanë is recorded as early as 1685, in the Cuneus Prophetarum ("The Band of the Prophets") by the Old Albanian writer Pjetër Bogdani, as the Albanian rendering of Roman goddess Diana.

History

Prehistoric Illyrian symbols used on funeral monuments of the pre-Roman period have been used also in Roman times and continued into late antiquity in the broad Illyrian territory. The same motifs were kept with identical cultural-religious symbolism on various monuments of the early medieval culture of the Albanians. They appear also on later funerary monuments, including the medieval tombstones (stećci) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the burial monuments used until recently in northern Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, southern Serbia and northern North Macedonia. Such motifs are particularly related to the ancient cults of the Sun and Moon, survived until recently among northern Albanians.

The widespread deification of the Moon among Albanians is considered to have been related to the ancient worship of a local deity associated with agriculture and nature. Hana/Hanë as a theonym is recorded by Bogdani as the Albanian rendering of Roman Diana. Of the Albanian mythological figures, Zana – usually associated with mountains, springs and streams, forests, vegetation and animals, human vital energy and sometimes destiny – is thought to have been originally a pre-Roman deity, and an Illyrian goddess equivalent of the Ancient Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. As such she would have been the personification of the Moon and the lady of the forests, protector of animals, guardian of springs and streams, protector of women, as well as distributor of sovereignty. Many statues and other items associated to this goddess have been found in the Shkodra region in northern Albania, maybe more than of any other goddess of the Illyrian pantheon. There is also an exceptional frequency of ancient inscriptions of the Roman era dedicated to the cult of Diana in Albania and the rest of the Balkans, which gives reason to think of an interpretatio romana of an indigenous pre-Roman goddess. Innumerable Albanian folk poems, myths and legends that are dedicated to Zana and her friends have been handed down to modern times.

Cult, practices, and folk beliefs

The cult of the Moon is commonly found in a variety of contexts of Albanian folk art, including traditional tattooing, grave art, jewellery and house carvings.

In Albanian traditions the different phases of the moon have determined influences on agricultural and livestock activities and on those related to various crafts, but also on several human aspects. For instance, the crops should be sown during the phase of waning moon, otherwise the growth would affect only the stalks and leaves at the expense of seed production. Cutting human hair during the new moon would turn them white, for this reason they should be cut at the waning of the moon. In order to ensure offspring, marriages should be celebrated at the time of the full moon. According to northern Albanian beliefs, in order to avoid their suffering from diarrhoea, children under the age of one should not look at the moon.

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