When someone is complaining that they don't have what they want but rather some lesser thing . . . we Armenians from Marash would always say, öp de başına koy = Kiss it and put it on your (fore)head. . . or in English parlance, "Be thankful for what you have!" "Consider it a blessing!"
Yet another instance in which kissing and foreheads are involved:
Whenever Marash Boy's grandmother, born in Marash in the 19th Century, and a survivor of the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), spied even the smallest piece of bread that may have been dropped on the floor, she would pick it up, kiss it, and put it to her forehead before eating it . . . Having traveled for days through the desert on a "death march", she knew what it was to go with neither food nor water . . . she knew the blessing of bread.
[It should be noted here that in the Armenian Apostolic Church in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, "mas" (Armenian soft flat bread that has been blessed during the "badarak") is served at the end of the service as all leave the chapel. When eating this "mas", parishioners kiss the small piece of bread before placing it in their mouths.]
One of my grandmother's brothers never ate a full meal for the rest of his life. Wen he was old enough to realize how begging their mother for food during the marches must have tortured her, he left so guilty about it, he could never eat his fill again; always left the table a little hungry as a reminder. :(
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