Why is there a teddy bear on that house? Dordolec and the evil eye

You're on a bus at the edge of town. A half-built concrete house slides past, with rebar sticking out of the roof, and a faded teddy bear is tied to one of the bars. You turn to the person next to you: Pse ka një arush atje? ("Why is there a teddy bear there?")

The answer is probably one word: dordolec.

A scarecrow for envy

A dordolec is a scarecrow or doll. It hangs on a house, often one still being built, and is meant to catch a passer-by's first glance. That way an envious look lands on the doll instead of the home. The teddy bear is the shop-bought version. Homemade figures are used too, and photographers have recorded things like a ram's skull hung alongside them.

The look it guards against is syri i keq, literally "the bad eye": the evil eye.

Three phrases to recognise

1. Për syrin e keq Kanë varur një dordolec për syrin e keq. (They've hung up a dordolec against the evil eye.) After për, syri i keq becomes syrin e keq.

2. Mësysh This verb means to harm someone or something by looking at it with envy. E mësyshi foshnjën. (He/She gave the baby the evil eye.)

3. Ra mësysh People say this when something keeps going wrong and they blame an envious look. Makina e re u prish dy herë këtë javë. Ra mësysh! (The new car broke down twice this week. Someone must have given it the evil eye!)

Not everyone's custom

You will notice dordolecs, but the custom varies by region, family and generation, and many Albanians don't follow it at all. One folklore study links its comeback to the years after communism, when people were building private homes and differences in wealth were becoming more visible. A shiny new house is exactly the kind of thing someone might envy.

So read it the way you might read a horseshoe over a door elsewhere: an old protective habit, not a statement about what every Albanian believes.

Quick challenge

How would you answer the question from the bus, Pse ka një arush atje?

Answer: Është dordolec, për syrin e keq. ("It's a dordolec, against the evil eye.") You've named the object with dordolec, then used për syrin e keq to give the reason.