Vatër

The Albanian term vatër, "hearth", "fireplace", is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ehₓ-tr-ehₐ-, and is related to the Avestan atar, "fire".[1][4]

The function of the fire of the domestic hearth (zjarri i vatrës) is the sustenance of the continuity between the world of the living and that of the dead. After death, the souls of the ancestors (hije) assume a divine connotation and remain in contact with the family protecting the domestic hearth.[1][2] In Albanian tradition, the fire of the domestic hearth is protected also by Nëna e Vatrës (the Mother of the Hearth), a beneficent deity akin to Greek Hestia and Roman Vesta.[1][2][5] At feasts, people used to practice sacrificial offerings to the deities throwing some of the food they prepared into the fire of the domestic hearth and around the hearth.[6][1]

Zjarri i vatrës also ensures the continuity of the tribe (fis) from generation to generation.[1] In Albanian tradition, indeed, the lineage is identified with an original fire (zjarr); the members of a tribe are the ones who come "from the same fire" (pe një zjarri). The fire burns into the hearth (vatër), where it assumes another connotation besides the primordial concept: the fire of the domestic hearth is considered also as a place of common existence and commensality.[3]