Kosovo Muslims Celebrate Christmas in Style

The Christian winter festival has caught on in a big way in Europe’s newest state, where most see it as party time.

Kosovo’s capital city, Pristina, is aglow as the secular Muslim majority prepares to celebrate Christmas. Almost every street is decorated with yellow and red lights, while Christmas trees have been placed in every small square.

Power cuts, which annoy Pristina residents most of the time, can do nothing to dim these seasonal lights. Most are powered by private generators, and so remain twinkling, even when the rest of the city is plunged into darkness.

Christmas in Kosovo is not celebrated only by the Christian minority, who make up only about 3 per cent of the population, but by most people, too.

Since 1999, when the country was freed from the Serbian regime, the celebration of Christmas has become an important national holiday.

Unlike Catholics, Kosovo Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas at home with their families, however, nor do they exchange gifts. Instead, they prefer to party. Tens of thousands of people are expected to flood Pristina on Christmas Eve.

Hundreds will also visit the St Ndou Catholic church in Ulpiana, some 10 minutes’ walk from the city centre. To get there, locals pass by a construction site, where a new cathedral named after the Albanian heroine Mother Theresa is being built.

There are several mosques on the way, too, but in Europe’s newest state, religious differences are not a significant issue. The best parties in town kick off on the Christmas Eve, and organisers use every possible method to lure as many guests as possible.

Lounge, a recently opened stylish restaurant in the centre of Pristina, plans to host a live music gig for the first time this Christmas Eve.  Arber Rozhaja, the owner, says that tonight is the right night to promote a different kind of approach.

“The holiday seasons starts tonight and continues up to January 2,” says Rozhaja, explaining that most people are keen to step out tonight.

Another Jazz gig is taking place in the quiet neighbourhood of Kafet e Vogla (Small Cafes), at a place called Sokoli dhe Mirusha, while many city hotspots are likely get crowded earlier.
As in many countries, New Year’s Eve is the other highlight of the season in Kosovo. Christmas is just the starting point.

“I’m definitely going out tonight,” says Besa, a young bank cashier. “Tomorrow is a day off and we have to use this night,” she says. Her plans are to party till dawn.

The only place to spend the dawn hours, though, is the Spray Club, where a big party has been announced. Two well-known foreign DJs, Guy J and Jimmy Van M, will undoubtedly get everybody who visits this club on the southern edge of Pristina moving.

Christmas in Pristina is, in other words, anything but ordinary, and the fact that this will be the country’s first Christmas after independence means that for most people, it is even more special.

Krenar Gashi is Balkan Insight Assistant Editor. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.