Albania Town Cheers Opposition Party : Democratization: Thousands of Christians celebrate first Christmas Mass in 23 years.

Albania’s new opposition Democrats took their drive against communism to the provinces Tuesday as the country’s leadership prepared to jettison four decades of Stalinist policies.

Thousands of Albanian Christians freely celebrated their first Christmas Mass in 23 years, now that a ban imposed on religion by the late Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha has been lifted.

About 10,000 people turned out at a rally for the Democratic Party, formed two weeks ago as a result of student unrest in the capital of Tirana.

“Freedom!” they shouted, as well as “Democracy!” and “We want to be part of Europe!”

The crowd exploded with applause and cheers in Kavaje’s muddy central square as Sali Berisha, one of the new party’s leaders, declared communism dead and said there is no stopping democracy.

Kavaje, a poor and backward industrial town of 20,000 people 40 miles southwest of Tirana, was one of four places rocked by sharp anti-government riots 10 days ago. The riots took place a few days after President Ramiz Alia allowed opposition parties for the first time in 40 years.

Albanian media announced that a demand by the Democratic Party to postpone elections scheduled for February to give it more time to organize had been rejected.

In Shkodra, 10,000 Catholics knelt in the icy midnight air of a graveyard in the early hours of Tuesday to celebrate Christmas Mass. In southern Albania, thousands of Greek Orthodox Christians attended their first celebration of the festival in more than two decades. In Tirana, a small midnight Mass was held in a youth center that was once a church.

Across the country, people who had no church or priest to turn to switched on their radios to hear Masses broadcast from Italy and Greece.

Christmas trees were decorated with colored lights in many Albanian towns. Ordinary citizens once prohibited from speaking to foreigners and petrified about doing so, wished visitors from abroad a happy Christmas and flashed V-for-victory signs.