The biggest
holiday celebrated in Armenia is New Years without a doubt. I’m fortunate to be living in Armenia to
experience the most anticipated celebration of the year. Unlike just a day celebration in America
where you watch college football games and endless parades with friends and
family members the New Year celebration over here lasts for 5 days! Over here New Year is called Nor Tari and
instead of saying Happy New Years in the west you congratulate someone on New
Years by saying Schnorhavor Nor Tari.
Our Language and Cultural Facilitators briefly covered this celebration
during our Pre-Service Training days so we had an idea of what to expect. Part of the Peace Corps experience is
learning about new cultures and customs so this was quite a delight to see up
close.
So the general
idea around celebrating Nor Tari is preparing a magnificent feast and inviting
your friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family members to your home. The amount of food available during these 5
days is quite significant due to the amount of people. Once the guests have come and gone it is
appropriate that you then visit them at their home and sample the feast they
have prepared. Now what gets really
interesting is that family members who are rarely seen will show up to
this. Due to the Armenian hospitality,
they will offer anything and everything to their guests. In some extreme cases, people will often take
loans out from bank to finance the Nor Tari feast and show off to their guests
of their abundance. Over here, it’s all
about showing off.
What makes this
interesting is because somehow they must figure out how to host for their
guests as well as be a guest to others.
Sometimes key members of the household will be left behind, as other
family members will visit other homes to represent the family and not
offend. Not everyone will call ahead
before coming over to visit and just show up often leading to homes being
overcrowded and chaotic. Things run like
clockwork for the hosting party because as soon as guests leave the dishes are
washed and the food replenished for the next round of guests.
I was quite
fortunate to be invited over by my Armenian friends home to witness their
family feast. One of my friends, Liana, is
a painter who I collaborated with on a project and I was able to meet her
family and taste the traditional dishes provided. The first thing I noticed when looking at
their dining room was that there was so much food on the table there was barely
any room for the plates and silverware!
Anyways, there is a wide variety of food available. One of the main dishes is dolma, a meat,
rice, and vegetable item wrapped in grape leaves and naturally, everyone thinks
their mother makes the best dolma. When
I was there at least 8 more people arrived to celebrate too.
Afterwards, my
site mate, Sarah, and I visited by counterpart’s home at the other end of
town. My counterpart, Gayane, just
managed to squeeze us in between two large parties that visited her home. As
the custom, the food was abundant and delicious. The one cultural takeaway I learned in being
in Armenia for almost a year is that no matter how many times you say you are
full, you will still be offered food and helpings will be but on your plate
regardless!
It’s amazing to
see the amount of food that is bought and the markets just days before the New
Years since it’s a mad house. Since the
vast majority of businesses are closed during these 5 days people must stock
up. I stopped by the local grocery store
on New Year’s Eve to get some small items and it looked like apocalyptic scene
from a disaster movie. I’ve never seen
shelves half empty at a supermarket before.
Since it’s not just the city inhabitants buying up everything it’s the
inhabitants of the surrounding villages coming into town to stock up also. The thing is it will take at least another
week for the shelves to be restocked and return to normal.
Unlike in the
West, Christmas Day is on January 6 and not December 25. I found out from my counterpart that what
most people do on Christmas Eve is go to the church and listen to the service
and then light a candle. Then they walk
home with the burning candle and light more candles. In order to prevent the candle from being
blown out vendors will often sell cut up water bottles and place candle in
them. It’s quite inexpensive and
effective. I took this as a photo
opportunity to see hundreds if not thousands of people leaving the church by
candlelight.
In Armenia, you
don’t say Merry Christmas like we do in the west. They say Schnorhavor Surb Tsnund or
congratulations for Christmas. Also, the
word for Santa Claus is Dzmer Papici or Winter Grandfather! Christmas Day over here is celebrated just
the same everywhere else with a Christmas tree and presents. The feast is different in that fish and rice
are usually served. My colleagues over at
the Social Educational Center were having a Christmas dinner party at a local
restaurant so I attended that.
In the end, I
survived my first Armenian New Year and Christmas celebration. It was great to experience and learn their
customs. The great thing about living
abroad is opening up to new cultural experiences and trying new food.
Happy holidays
and get traveling.
