Цитрон в культуре и языке греков и албанцев Химары
Citron in the culture and language of the Greeks and Albanians of Himara

Summary/Abstract: The role of some plants and especially the importance of the sacred plant citron – Citrus medica (etrog in the Jewish holiday of Sukkot) is extremely exaggerated. The paper deals with citron, which was cultivated in trading volumes in Southern Albania before the middle of the XX century, when Himariot/Albanian cultural, ethnic, and economic contacts with the Jews of the Mediterranean world were extremely intensive and close. The study is based on the archives’ data and the field research during many years in the Balkans (1994–2022). The authors analyze the decay and complete disappearance of the tradition of growing citron in socialist Albania under the influence of political, social and ideological factors. The persistence of narratives about the former well-being of settlements on specific circumstances of the life of the Jewish diaspora in post-war Albania are described. All Albanian (qitro, kitёr, citron, etc.) and Greek (κιτριά, κιτρό, tsitróni, etc.) phytonyms for Citrus medica are analyzed, etymologized and compared with the names of citron in other languages of the Adriatic and the Ionian coast – Italian, Aromanian, Croatian.

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