Dile Vaçaj

Dile Vaçaj has a special connection with xhublet due to the family connection as well as exercising the function as the head of the “Jehona e Kelmendi” association. Dile Vaçaj herself wore the xhublet as a young girl, at the age of 13, this dress was taught to her by her mother. With the change of status, as it happened with all the married girls in Malesia e Madhe, she also wears the wedding dress, but since we are now after 1967 when the restrictions on the use of this dress had begun, the possibility of respecting of the tradition so desired comes and fades more and more. Anyway, Mrs. Vaçaj finds another way to ensure the longevity of wearing xhublet based on her work as a teacher for about 40 years in the Malësi e Madhe area. The profession enables Dile Vaçaj to have contact with children in the various schools in the area where she teaches, and since she was regularly involved in the organization of artistic activities held by these schools, she fulfilled her passion by dressing the children in jublet (girls) and çakshir (boys). Later, Dile Vaçaj exercises this passion by holding the position of the person who prepared the girls for the Log of Bjeshke. One of the activities held during the Logu i Bjeshkëve, following the traditional protocol of the Log of the Church, is the evaluation of the best girl, dressed in a xhublet. Dile Vaçaj, since 1998, when Logu i Bjeshkëve began to reorganize, has held the function of the person who dressed the girls in xhublet. Dressing a woman with a xhublet, as Dile Vaçaj himself says, requires the observance of a procedure inherited from generation to generation, which in some cases has required 10 days of preparation. At the same time, the same procedure is also required for folding and packing, for storage, the xhublet itself. However, Dile Vaçaj says that he was able to teach the participating girls how to wear the xhublet and not need a midwife.