28 November: the Albanian Independence and Flag Day

One date, two stories

The holiday commemorates first of all the declaration of independence of 1912. On that day the national flag was raised in Vlora, the red banner with the black double-headed eagle. At the same time the date carries an older story: according to tradition, Skanderbeg raised the same flag in Kruja on 28 November 1443, after he had left the Ottoman ranks. That the two events fall on the same day is part of what gives the holiday its weight, even if the exact date of 1443 rests on tradition rather than on a contemporary document.

Some trace the struggle for independence back to the fifteenth century, when the Ottomans first took control of Albanian lands. Most historians, however, place its real beginning in the Albanian national movement of the nineteenth century, a movement that took important impulses from the diaspora in southern Italy, the descendants of Albanians who had left their homeland after Skanderbeg's death.

Where the eagle on the flag comes from and what its colours mean is told in our article on the Albanian double-headed eagle. This one is about the day itself.

Vlora, 1912

In the autumn of 1912 the First Balkan War was raging, and the Ottoman Empire was losing its European provinces. In the port city of Vlora, delegates from the Albanian-inhabited regions gathered; 79 delegates were registered and 40 signed the declaration. The assembly was chaired by Ismail Qemali, who on 28 November waved the national flag from the balcony of the building in which the assembly met.

Which flag exactly flew over Vlora that day is less certain than one might think. Researchers have found no surviving trace of the original, and a 2012 editorial by the Albanian broadcaster Top Channel concluded that there is no definitive proof of its appearance. The symbol itself, the black double-headed eagle on red, is not in doubt.

On 4 December 1912 a provisional government under Ismail Qemali was formed, together with a council of elders. Recognition followed step by step: on 17 December 1912 the Conference of Ambassadors in London accepted Albania de facto, and on 29 July 1913 the great powers recognised it as a neutral, sovereign principality whose prince they were to choose. The decisions of the great powers were announced on 17 May 1913, and the Treaty of London was signed on 30 May 1913.

A week of November holidays

In Albania, 28 November is not the only date in late November. On 22 November the country celebrates Dita e Alfabetit, Alphabet Day, in memory of the Congress of Manastir, which unified the Albanian alphabet in 1908. Six days later comes Independence Day, and on 29 November Dita e Çlirimit, Liberation Day, which commemorates the day Albania was freed from German occupation in the Second World War. All three are official public holidays; 28 November is also Constitution Day, but that is an ordinary working day.

Because 28 and 29 November follow each other, Albania has two official holidays in a row at the end of the month. If a non-working holiday falls on a weekend, it moves to the next working day.

Albania, Kosovo and beyond

The holiday belongs to the Albanian state, but it is celebrated wherever Albanians live. In Kosovo, 28 November is not on the list of public holidays; Kosovo's own Independence Day is 17 February, and its state flag was deliberately designed without the symbols of any single ethnic group. At the same time, Albanians in Kosovo have flown the red flag with the eagle informally since 1969; in the 1990s it stood for the self-declared Republic of Kosova.

The Arbëreshë of Italy mark the day too. In Piana degli Albanesi near Palermo, the municipality organised two days of events for Festa e Flamurit in 2024: book presentations by professors from universities in Tetovo and Skopje, a talk on the meaning of 28 November 1912, and the comedy Kërkuesit by Giuseppe Schirò di Maggio, staged by the association Mondo Albanese.

How the diaspora celebrates

In the diaspora the flag becomes the centre of the day. In Stuttgart, for example, around 250 cars decorated with Albanian flags drove around the city ring on the evening of 28 November 2024, honking, from about eight o'clock until half past eleven, watched by many spectators. The police closed roads to keep disruption to other traffic low and recorded more than 30 traffic offences. A loud, proud evening that also affects everyone else on the road.

The flag itself is regulated by law in Albania. The flag law of 22 July 2002 states that every citizen may hold, raise and use the national flag, that public institutions must display it, and that foreign flags may only be shown alongside it. In times of national mourning declared by the government it flies at half-mast.

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1. Wikipedia: Independence Day (Albania)
2. Wikipedia: Albanian Declaration of Independence
3. Wikipedia: Public holidays in Albania
4. Wikipedia: Public holidays in Kosovo
5. Wikipedia: Flag of Albania
6. Stuttgarter Zeitung (2024): Autokorso in Stuttgart – Albaner feiern Unabhängigkeitstag
7. Balarm (2024): Indipendenza dell'Albania, due giorni di incontri a Piana degli Albanesi