A Busy Week Downtown
One of the benefits of living downtown is having a front row seat to all kinds of events. Mother Teresa Boulevard, the large pedestrian area, is always lively and full of booksellers, musicians, restaurants, shops, and more. This week proved to be particularly busy as multiple events of all different kinds coincided on Mother Teresa Boulevard and the surrounding downtown area.
The first of these events was Children's Day on Saturday, June 1. Stephanie and I discovered Pristina's Children's Day festivities accidentally when, intending to do some sightseeing, we entered Mother Teresa Boulevard and found ourselves surrounded by crowds of children and their families. All along the boulevard were food trucks, activities for children, and tables representing schools and organizations focused on children's issues. It seemed like a very popular event, judging by just how packed the area was. When we reached the end of Mother Teresa Boulevard, we found another crowd, also mostly made up of children. They were clustered in groups around the flags of mostly Balkan countries, wearing traditional dress corresponding to their flags. This, too, was part of Children's Day. Later, I learned that President Vjosa Osmani had also hosted an event at a local bookstore for children and teachers a few days earlier in honor of Children's Day. While the United States does also observe Children's Day—on the second Sunday of June, though, rather than June 1—I don't recall ever seeing it celebrated quite this much at home.
Kosovo is a young country in more ways than one: it declared its independence less than two decades ago, and it also has a very young population. About a quarter of Kosovo's population are fourteen years old or younger, almost a third are under eighteen, and about forty percent are under twenty-five. However, youth unemployment is very high, which contributes to the country's high emigration rate. Young adults often leave Kosovo to seek employment in other countries and send remittances home to their families. This year, international travel became easier for Kosovars when Kosovo officially joined the Schengen zone in January. As of December, about a third of Kosovars under twenty-four years old reported that they intended to emigrate after visa liberalization. Anton also mentioned to me that Kosovars who have moved abroad for work often come back during the summer, which contributes to the crowds downtown recently.
After Children's Day came Pristina's Pride Week, which began on Monday, June 3, and ended on Saturday, June 8. This year's theme was, "We have been and we will be." Pride events happened all week long, including a drag show, a conference on inclusion, a display of queer archives, theatrical plays, and several other activities. The week's events culminated on Saturday with a parade down Mother Teresa Boulevard, which was bookended by a pre-parade rally featuring lots of signs and flags and a DJ, and a post-parade concert in front of the National Library.
LGBTQ+ rights in Kosovo have been in the news quite a bit lately, especially related to same-sex marriage. Currently, Kosovo's civil code does not permit same-sex marriage or same-sex civil unions. In 2014, the Supreme Court of Kosovo held that same-sex marriage would not be unconstitutional, but a new civil code would still need to be passed to permit it. There is a new civil code in the National Assembly now that, if passed, would legalize same-sex civil unions and create a pathway for an additional law to legalize same-sex marriage. A similar code was voted on by the National Assembly in 2022, but it did not pass. This April, Prime Minister Albin Kurti declared that the new civil code would be voted on and passed by May. However, as of June, that has not happened. The latest update—according to a recent Reuters article—is that Kurti is reportedly trying to negotiate with the opposition to convince them to pass the new civil code in exchange for calling snap elections.
Finally, this was also the week of the Pristina Book Fair, which ran from Wednesday, June 5, to Sunday, June 9. This year's theme was, "The answer is the book." Most of the book fair was inside the Palace of Youth and Sports, although there was one section that extended outside under a tent. The Palace of Youth and Sports is a very unique building, and its jagged shape is a notable part of Pristina's skyline. Inside the building and the tent, most of the tables seemed to be run by local bookstores and publishers. They featured books of many different genres. One thing that made me smile was seeing a large display of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books translated into Albanian. That display stuck out to me because I remembered seeing a similar display of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books translated into Arabic at a bookstore when I was in Jordan in 2019. That series really seems to be a universal favorite.
These events were plenty to fill one week, but I am sure that more can be expected soon, especially with this week bringing with it the twenty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Kosovo War. I look forward to sharing more of this very busy city as the summer continues.