Noor Tari

In Armenia, Christmas (or surb tsnund, Սբ. Ծնունդ) is celebrated on January 6th and it is mainly a religious holiday that marks the kind of unofficial end of Noor Tari and coincides with the Epiphany. Traditionally on Christmas Armenians refrain from eating meat and the traditional Christmas meal consists of fish and Christmas pilaf (rice with raisins).

Now you may asking yourslef then what is this mysterious holiday called Noor Tari you speak of if it isn't Christmas? Well it is actually a holiday that is many days long and begins on December 31st. In Armenian Noor Tari literally means ‘New Year’ and it is best described to a foreigner as the secular parts of Christmas in the States plus New Year’s Eve with a twist. The weekend before my host family decorated the house with lights and a little Christmas tree. In the days before the 31st my family prepared a food for our Noor Tari table. The tradition is that every family prepares a table at their house with all kinds of food, including a turkey, pork, dolma, blinchik, kufta, fruit, mixed nuts, dried fruit, assorted cakes and candies, wine, vodka, cognac, juices and sodas. On December 31st everyone sits at home at waits for midnight. My family got the table ready and watched a special on TV. Then Dzmer Papik (literally Winter Grandpa but his like our Santa Claus) came to our house to see my little brother. We shared a toast with Dzmer Papik and when it was midnight my brothers went outside and shot off fireworks. The tradition is to go around to your neighbors’ houses after midnight to eat, drink, and say many many toasts.




I was really supposed to wait and give my host family their presents the next morning when they opened their gifts from Dzmer Papik, but I could not wait so I played Santa Sarah. My parents sent gifts for my host family from the States and even though they weren’t expected to arrive until January the post office gods smiled on me and they arrived on Christmas Eve.






I was not feeling that great on New Year’s Eve and my host mother has been sick so we stayed home. A few neighbors came over while I was still awake, but I went to be around 1am and apparently the mayor and his family came over and were sad I only made it to 1am. On New Year’s Day my host sister and I went to the mayor’s house and her aunt’s house to sit, toast, and eat. That is pretty much what Noor Tari is – going to people’s houses sitting eating, toasting, and talking. However, when you are an outsider it is mostly being told to eat a bunch of food even though you are full from eating exact same things at the previous houses and questions about how you celebrate in the U.S. and if you like Armenia. People continue to go visit their friends and relatives as well as have people visit their homes over the next week or so. I didn’t go visit a bunch of houses, but every time someone new came over to my house I got paraded around and introduced to everyone as “Our Sarah”. I'm glad I got to experience such a big holiday with my host family and they were glad that I was there. However, next New Year's I hope to be visiting the States!

Christmas in Kapan

Because this was the first Christmas many of us had been away from our families we decided to have our very own Christmas in Kapan. Kapan is only about 200 miles from Yerevan, but to get there you must drive through a ton of mountains passes so in takes about 6-7 hours in good weather to get there. Therefore, the volunteers who live there don’t make it to Yerevan often and they don’t get a lot of visitors outside their marz so it's become a little tradition to have Christmas in Kapan.

There were quite a few of us traveling from Yerevan so some of us took shared taxis and others (i.e. my group) had to take the marshootni. Now the marshootni takes about an extra hour and the three volunteers I was traveling with and I got the last four sets in the back which meant our knees were pressed into the seatbacks in front of us and we got to sit on hard marshootni seats for seven hours. But it was worth it because once we arrived in Kapan everyone met up at one the PCVs, Barbara’s apartment for some Christmas Eve chili. There were 22 of us there and it was so much fun! We had chili and cornbread, played charades, listened to Christmas music, and just had an awesome time.

I stayed at Shannon’s apartment with Danya, Rani, Amanda, and Bryan and Christmas day we sat around her cozy apartment drinking coffee and eating gingerbread cookies while we all knitted and listened to Christmas music. I got to talk to my family on my Christmas morning (their Christmas Eve) while they were snowed in at my grandma’s house. Of course my first Christmas away from Wichita Falls and there is a blizzard and no snow here for a white Christmas! Later on Christmas Day we all head out to Sue’s village Vachakan. We had a Christmas feast, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and watched ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’. Even though I was far from home it was an amazing Christmas spent with tons of new friends.


Amanda and I were Christmas!


Watching 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'


Opening Secret Santa Gifts

Haykakan Harsanek aka An Armenian Wedding

At the beginning of December I attended my first Armenian wedding or as the Armenians say a Haykakan Harsanek. It was the wedding of my host cousin Miriam and it was definitely an interesting experience. I left my house at noon and returned home at 1 a.m. Armenian wedding and American wedding traditions are very different.



First my host sister, host mom, and I went to the neighboring village Aygezard to the family of the bride's house to sit and chat with all her female relatives before the ceremony. My sister and I sat with the bride and her friends while we waited for the groom’s family to come over. After about an hour we could hear music coming from outside and we all went down stairs where the groom’s family was coming marching down the street with a four-piece traditional Armenian band and gifts for the bride.



The women from the bride’s family came out of the house and took the gifts from the groom’s family and everyone danced in the street. Then all the women from both families went inside to give the gifts to the bride. The gifts were baskets of fruit and candies. One basket had the bride’s veil, wrap, bouquet and one of her shoes in it. Now you may be wondering why in the world the groom’s family had one of the bride’s shoes…well many of the Armenian wedding traditions involve the giving of money for various things, including one of the bride’s shoes which the groom’s family stole earlier. The women then began to sing and prepare the bride – putting on her shoes, her veil, and her wrap. Then they threw some of the candy from the basket at all of the women and girls watching. My host mom handed me a piece and told me to put it under my pillow that night while I slept and I would have a dream about my future husband. After the bride was ready the groom came up stairs and presented her was a basket of flowers. The bride and groom went downstairs and outside and we all followed. Once we were all outside there was more dancing, this time around the happy couple.



The next stop was the church – they ceremony was at Khor Virap, a beautiful church about twenty minutes from my village. Khor Virap is a 7th century monastery and it is where Saint Gregory the Illuminator (the patron-saint of Armenia) was imprisoned in a dungeon for 13 years. According to legend the King became very ill and began to go mad and his daughter convinced him to release Gregory who then healed the King and converted him to Christianity.



The ceremony was quite short compared to the rest of the festivities and after the priest finished the ceremony the groom’s parents stood at the front of the church with the couple and the wedding party for the receiving line. All the guests went through the line giving their congratulations to the couple. Everyone lined up for pictures outside the church after the ceremony and then doves were released.



After the ceremony everyone headed to the groom’s house for celebratory toasts and dancing. In Armenia it is tradition that when a couple is married the bride moves into the groom’s house with his parents. So when everyone was at the groom’s house the bride and groom arrived with a suitcase symbolizing the exchange of the bride to her new family. After some more dancing the party head to the reception, which was at a restaurant on the highway between Artashat and Yerevan, for more dancing, toasts, food, and drinks. At the restaurant there were large family-style tables full of olives, cheese, bread, fruits, and bottles of wine, vodka, and cognac. There was a three-course dinner 1) pork khoravats (Armenian barbecue); 2) kufta (this weird meat trine); 3) fish. The reception had a MC, tons of dancing, and many long toasts. The bride and groom went around the room and toasted every person at the reception. The bride and groom were presented with gifts from their families, mostly gold jewelry. They cut the cake around 11pm and then did the garter and bouquet toss. The bride and groom went around the room and handed out little plaster statues of hearts and flowers to all the single people in the crowd. Later the bride danced for all the guests and people came up and gave her money. The reception wound-down around midnight, but by the time we got home it was past 1am.

It was interesting to experience a wedding a culture that is very different for the United States. All in all I can say that an Armenian wedding is an exciting fun time, but it is not for the faint of heart because it is a marathon of toasts, eating, drinking, and dancing.