- Can you set up a tribe (in modern world it would sound like: “Can you get much fans and followers”), using just one word: “Mirdita!”, meaning “Good Day!” ?

      As a legend goes, this greeting was the only possession of one of the three brothers, who founded three Albanian tribes: Shoshi, Shala and Mirdita.  One of them had a saddle (Shala), so from him the Shala tribe was named. The second brother had a winnowing sieve (Shosh), so the Shoshi tribes takes its name from him. The third brother had nothing, so he said: "Mirdita", and the Mirdita tribe came to life. 

      How much truth is in this legend nobody knows, but there is the beautiful place high in the Albanian Alps, called Mirdita.  Edith Durham visited it 100 years ago and wrote about it in her book High Albania: " We rode through the forest of huge fir trees, quite magnificent, and came out on  a large plain with rude wooden huts - the summer quarters of the herd folk - dotted about. Out came the people, running to welcome us, bringing a wooden vessel full of buttermilk and a large sheep-cheese, which they insisted on our taking as a gift". 

       Edit Durham didn't have a chance to participate in any weddings in Mirdita, otherwise she would be very much impressed with the bright colorful embroidery on the white felt coat of the bride. The one that we use for making our silk scarf "Mirdita," definitely has decorated a bride from Mirdita. The cross embroidered at the back of the coat is a reminder that Mirdita remained Catholic through all 500 years of the Ottoman ruling of Albania. As did all the other elements of decoration, the cross had its magic significance. Every color and every pattern had its own meaning and function and was to protect a certain part of a body, where it was placed. This visual language of protective magic has been long forgotten. Yet, even if we don't understand what every decoration and color tells us, we still enjoy the beauty and harmony of its whole. 

      Folk costume collectors find  the authentic Mirdita bridal coats and preserve them. People, if they manage to buy one, do not put them on, but put them in a glass box, frame it, and use it for interior decoration.

Our natural silk  scarf  Mirdita Red has all the decorative elements of the Mirdita bridal coat. We just added more red color to make it brighter and pay a tribute to the favorite Albanian color. It is much lighter than the coat itself, and you don't have to be a bride to wear it. Put it on, bring it as a gift from Albania, and you will feel a touch of "the wonder-world of the mountains", as Edith Durham called the world of Mirdita.