silky and meaningful gifts
from the places you dream of or miss...
100% Natural Silk Twill Necktie
Buy on:
Price: 54 USD
Size: 7,6 cm | 3 in wide
Collection: Gifts for Travel Lovers
Gift envelope with the story of the scaf is included
David Stars
Albanian art, culture and history. Every design, color, fabric, and size, and even the
way it is worn, tells a story about who used to put it on. What story does the folk costume with the David Star tell us? It can tell many stories, but we will choose just one - one that is related to David Star in its modern context - about the long lasting friendly relations between Albanians and Hebrews (this is the word Albanians used for the Jews). It is a noble story from Albanian history from the times when David Star in Europe was a sign of the people chosen to be exterminated.
With the silent permission of the whole world, except few countries including Albania and few brave individuals, 6 million of this people were killed. Only Albania was giving them visas. You may read more about it here. Albanians from Kosovo were sending them to Albania from all surrounding countries. Albanians in Albania were hiding them, feeding them, and providing them with Albanian passports. The Albanian government never handed any of them over to the Fascist invaders. It is the only country in Europe where the Jewish population after WWII was bigger then before the war.
It is written in the Talmud: “... whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a). The David Star that we transferred from an apron of Albanian Folk costume to the silk neck tie Stars of David tells a story how Albanians saved the world.
Our hand-made natural silk tie, Stars of David, was designed by Triqita from our photo of the David Star decorating an apron of an Albanian women’s folk costume of the XIX century. The stars of David create an intricate ornament on the tie the Stars of David while remaining not very prominent on the dark jacquard-like background. Triqita chose to make the tie Stars of David from this particular photo, that we took at the exhibition of Luljeta Dano's private collection of Albanian folk costumes, because we wanted to tie the Stars of David tie with a very prominent page of human history.
David Stars appeared as a decorative element in Albanian culture a long time before it became an official symbol of Judaism as the cross is for Christians and the crescent is for Muslims. It was universally used even before any of these religions came to life. Most likely, it was not introduced to Albania by the Turks, since the Jews were there 1000 years before the Turks, and ancient Greeks came there a long time before the Jews.
Albania is a very promising land for archeologists. There is still a lot to dig and to discover. But another reliable source of cultural identity was not buried under the ruins that every new invader made and the constructions that every new possessor erected over the ruins. It was not in what people were building, but in what they were wearing.
Albanian folk costume is probably the most authentic and the best preserved artifact of
