Ahead of the New Year and Armenian Christmas, Hayern Aysor is touching upon Diaspora Armenians who live far away from the Homeland, but celebrate the New Year according to Armenian customs. They also share stories of how they celebrate the New Year in their respective countries.

Our first interlocutor is Persian language teacher, writer Gaiane Abgaryan, who decided to move to Armenia after living in Iran for 11 years.

Hayern Aysor: Mrs. Abgaryan, what do the New Year and Christmas mean to you?

Gaiane Abgaryan: In our days, there are surely many phenomena that are no longer as symbolic as they used to be.  I still maintain the most beautiful symbol, celebrating the New Year without any dues and without any indignation. Life is full of so many surprises that one doesn’t know where he will be on next New Year’s Eve. Before New Year’s Eve, I definitely extend a hand to the person whom I have offended or the person who has offended me, especially relatives.

Hayern Aysor: How do you and your families prepare for the New Year and Armenian Christmas? Do you preserve the traditions of the Armenian community of Iran?

Gaiane Abgaryan: When I had just gotten married and moved to Iran, I would try to celebrate the New Year according to Armenian national customs and traditions. Now that we have returned to Armenia, we preserve the traditions of both the Iranians and the Armenians. Perhaps this is our way of showing our longing. In any case, I love and attach greater importance to peace within the family and a joyous atmosphere.

Unlike the preparations that women in Armenia make, women in Iran focus more on taking care of themselves, decorating their homes and purchasing gifts. Armenian athletic and cultural institutions, church unions and Armenia women’s unions of Iran gather members of the community and organize several New Year’s and Christmas events.

Many Iranian-Armenians celebrate the New Year with their families, friends and others. The goal is to make sure women don’t have too many duties. As far as the celebration is concerned, taking into consideration the fact that eating at midnight is bad for a person’s organism, like many others, we also dine at 20:00 on the evening of December 21^st, talk about our successes and failures until midnight, and when the clock strikes twelve, we open the champagne and congratulate each other. Afterwards, we rush to the Christmas tree to open our gifts.

Hayern Aysor: What meals do you prepare that are characteristic of the Iranian-Armenian cuisine?

Gaiane Abgaryan: Out of the New Year’s meals, I make zharko, chicken and fish, two or three types of desserts, olovie, tasty Iranian sauces (ghorme sabzi, fesenjan). Rice with saffron and barberries is the main dish on the table. I love tahdik (tah means “under”, dik means “boiler”), and it can be either potatoes or lavash. I recently tasted tahdik with the leaves of lettuce, and it was also very tasty.

Hayern Aysor: Would you invite your Persian friends and acquaintances to celebrate the New Year with you and your family? What do they think about the way Armenians celebrate the New Year?

Gaiane Abgaryan: There are usually few Armenians who deepen their relations with their Iranian friends to the extent that they visit each other, but our Iranian friends and neighbors always wish their close and familiar Armenians a Happy New Year as a sign of respect. In Iran our Iranian friends would always visit us to wish us a Happy New Year, while large organizations would always prepare special gifts for their Christian employees.

Hayern Aysor: What is your New Year’s wish?

Gaiane Abgaryan: I wish peace to the world, wisdom to my nation, health and success to my students, children and all hard-working youth and all mankind.

As for me, I wish that Santa Claus finds a benefactor so that I can publish another one of my children’s books and republish my short novel entitled “Something good will always be used”.

P.S.: We present the recipe of Gaiane Abgaryan’s New Year’s dish that the Iranian-Armenians traditionally make.

FESENJAN (for 6-8 persons)

Boneless chicken, duck or cooked calf meat (1-1.5 kg),

Ground walnuts (0.5 kg),

Stewed onion (3-4 tablespoons),

Pomegranate water (3-4 cups, or pomegranate syrup: 4-5 tablespoons),

Sugar (1 teaspoon, if pomegranate water or syrup is very bittersweet),

Salt (in amount that is necessary).

How to make Fesenjan: cook chicken with stewed onions, 3-4 cups of water, ground walnuts, a little sat and pepper lightly until the oil is sunk in.

Interview by Gevorg Chichyan