Արևելահայերեն
Արևմտահայերեն
РусскийVisiting Armenian senior citizens of Belgium on 1 January is a mandatory tradition for Lusine Nersisyan
President of the Mesrop Mashtots Armenian Union of the Belgian city of Liege Lusine Nersisyan considers the New Year a family holiday and prefers to spend it with her family. Since her husband, Didie is of Belgian descent, the family also celebrates Christmas on December 24th.
Armenian Christmas is very spiritually symbolic for Lusine Nersisyan, and she always preserves the customs of one of the major Christian holidays. She prepares fish and a meal with rice and raisins, and the family celebrates the Apparition with red wine.
Lusine Nersisyan does everything she can to make sure all of her family members are in a good mood. She decorates the Christmas tree with her children, always bakes the Armenian gata and pakhlava and cooks dolma, ishli kufta and khashlama with lamb. The sweet and dried fruits brought from Armenia are also placed on their table.
The hostess also makes dishes with the meat of deer, kangaroo and wild boar, which are very common in Belgium and are considered traditional forest animals. One of the dishes is called “Chukrut” and is made with sour cabbage, meat (various types of meat) and mashed potatoes. The eldest of the children makes the dish on January 1st.
“When our Armenian friends and acquaintances visit us to wish us a Happy New Year, we treat them to Belgian dishes. When our Belgian friends come, we treat them to Armenian dishes,” Lusine told Hayern Aysor, adding that the Belgians know how the Armenians celebrate the New Year and even say that there are villages in Belgium that still preserve the tradition of going to each other’s houses to celebrate the New Year.
For the president of the union, visiting Armenian senior citizens of the Armenian community, congratulating them and wishing them good health on the 1st of January is a mandatory condition. With this, they want to stress the fact that adults always need to be in focus.
At the end, Lusine Nersisyan expressed kind wishes to the Armenian people, wishing peace to Armenia and the whole world, and to our soldiers-a safe service and peace on the borders of Armenia.
