HAPPINESS ON EASTER . . . AND EVERY DAY . . . IN ARMENIAN AND ENGLISH!

Greeting on Easter Day:  KRISDOS  HARYAV  Y  MERELOTS!  Christ has risen and conquered death!

Response:  OHRNYAL EH  HAROUTIOUN  KRISDOSI!  Blessed is the resurrection of Christ!

And if you can read Armenian, here it is in the original:  

                                      Քրիստոս Յարեաւ Ի Մէրէլոց:

                                      Օրհնեալ է Յարութիւնն Քրիստոսի:

Thank you, Uncle Paul, for teaching us this important Armenian Easter salutation while we were still young 'uns . . . and for teaching us the true meaning of Easter! 

                                                                                                    Above Photos By MarashGirl©2022

Շնորհավոր Սուրբ Ծնունդ! Wishing You A Blessed Armenian Christmas!

Krisdos dznav yev haydnetsav! Tsezi mezi medz avedis!

Photo by the MET via the Armenian Museum of America, Watertown, Massachusetts

Krisdos Dznav Yev Haidnetsav!

"Krisdos Dznav Yev Haidnetsav!" If you're Armenian, you know that this is the manner in which Armenians greet one another on Christmas. And if you're Armenian, you know that this . . . "Ohrnyal Eh Dznoutioun Krisdosi!" . . . is the Armenian Response to the Armenian greeting on Christmas. Translation from the Armenian: Greeting on Christmas: "Christ is born and has been revealed unto us." Response to Greeting on Christmas: "Blessed is the birth of Christ!" Years ago, Uncle Paul, Daddy's older brother, tried to teach us kids the Armenian greetings appropriate for the various Armenian religious holidays. Invariably, we would interchange the Christmas greeting and response (which you see recorded above -- yes, Marash Girl still remembers that greeting) . . we would interchange that Christmas greeting with the Easter greeting, "Krisdos haryav y merelotz!" "Christ has risen and conquered death!" (Marash Girl will record the response to that greeting on Easter!) Rather than being mean and chastising us with a sharp correction, Uncle Paul (born in Marash) would laugh and ask, "How can Jesus be risen from the dead when Jesus has just been born?" N.B. Above image has been borrowed from the internet. Thanks to whomever posted it!

"Never go visiting empty-handed!!!"

A hard and fast rule growing up, Marash Girl learned that one should never go visiting "empty-handed"!  Whether it be a chocolate cake baked that very day by her mom (Grandma Jennie), or a box of Whitman's Samplers, chocolates purchased that day from the Armenian owned pharmacy, the rule was clear.

Today Marash Girl learned from her Turkish friend Murat that, yes, this is not only a rule in the Armenian community, but it is a teaching from the prophet Muhammed:  

            "Ziyarete eli boş gidilmez."  "One should not go visiting with an empty hand."

Spit up?

                                     Aşağı tükürsen sakal, yukarı tükürsen bıyık.

                      "Spit up, you hit your mustache; spit down, you hit your beard."  

(Actually the reverse in the above Turkish expression which translates,  "Spit down, you hit your beard; spit up, you hit your mustache."). . . a common saying in Marash Girl's house growing up. In college she learned that in English, to express the same meaning, one would say, "Caught between Scylla and Charibdis; caught between a rock and a hard place."  Marash Girl guesses that every culture has its conundrums!!!!

"Malın gibi ye!"

Armenians from Marash (today's Kahramanmaraş) and Aintab (Today's Gaziaintab) would often use irony when they suggested, "Malın gibi ye!"

"Malın gibi ye!" . . . "Eat it as if it were your own . . . ," suggesting that the person being addressed was very selfish and barely shared anything,  especially food, if you were to visit them on a Sunday afternoon .  . . or any time!!!

No Shoes

Shoes and Socks Abandoned Yesterday
 On Newton Corner Church Steps
Photo by Marash Girl

Marash Girl remembers her dad,  Peter Bilezikian, quoting an old saying . . . don't know if it was from his life in Brighton, Massachusetts, or from his life in Marash, Ottoman Empire.  It went something like this . . . but it was in his native tongue of Armeno-Turkish . . . and not just a saying, but all too real for him.

"I wept that I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet."

S . . . . r

For years, Marash Girl found it an embarrassment when someone (probably from Watertown where all the tai-lingual Armenians live) would drive by with a Massachusetts license plate that flaunted a lewd Turkish word.  Although in Massachusetts, all vanity plates were scanned before issue in order to avoid such an occurrence, apparently the scanner didn't know Turkish.  As Marash Girl hasn't seen this license plate in years (and she won't tell you the word, but you can guess it . . . and it didn't start with F . . .), she assumes that the scanner has learned Turkish as well!

Chickpeas!

Marash Girl was raised in a culture in which chickpeas played a very important part . . . roasted salted chickpeas (eaten as one would roasted, salted peanuts ), and (beginning with dried chickpeas), soaked chickpeas that were later cooked into a "soolu" which contained fried onions and stewed tomatoes.  Delicious!  But chickpeas played an important in the aphorisms of the Armenian people as well. One in particular that Marash Girl will always remember:  "Lep deyersin, leplebou anliar."  Marash Girl has written the expression here as she heard it.  Unsure about the spelling . . . but to continue . . . the meaning of the expression is the important thing, since it was always spoken and she has never seen it written.  Meaning:  'When they say "chick", chickpea is understood.'  In other words, do I have to spell it out for you?

What do Armenians from Marash say when someone sneezes?

What do Armenians (and probably Turks) from Marash say when someone sneezes? 

"Hepsini diyesin ki, bazisi olsun." 

"If he says all, let him have (at least) some!"

A  good, old-country sense of humor!!!!

Note:  According to Murat, the sound of the sneeze is similar to the word "hepsi" and thus the play on words!

In whatever language, it all starts in the same way . . .

Inch ga chiga?  Ne var ne yokh? Qué pasa? Comment ça va?  What's up?

A Reposting from Facebook

Years ago, Kenar and Marash Girl collected Armenian Nursery Rhymes from Medzmama when the little ones were little.  Those rhymes are somewhere deep in the files, to be discovered one day (soon, Marash Girl hopes).  In the meantime, please accept this reposting from Facebook with thanks to Maro Nercessian Katalaris.  Can anyone out there provide a translation?

Maro Nercessian Katalaris 2:54am Aug 4 Armenian Nursery Rhyme/ Lullaby Aintab mothers said to their children. Remember Armenian language was spoken differently back then. Djor, Djor, Djor Mama, Djorig maman jam g'erta Gorgod abour bish enna, Yeghe vran khesh enna. Kkachon oude, josh enna, Lop, Lop Ashenna.

Hooray for the Broken Glass and the New Year!

In true form, Marash Girl broke a glass (Pyrex) baking dish on New Year's Day.  Poor Marash Boy spent an hour on that first day of the new year, just making sure all the bits were no longer on the floor.  Marash Girl had to remind him of what his grandmother would have said!

Ayi Gitdi  It's good it's gone. . . Let it take all the bad with it!

Keep Your Toes Warm!

As the days grow colder here in New England, and as Marash Girl spent all last night trying to keep her toes warm, she was reminded of her father's warning.

"Don't stretch your toes beyond the length of your yorghan (quilt)!"  Marash Girl wrote to her dear friend Murat to learn the expression in its original Turkish . . . Murat writes as follows:  "Ayağını yorganına göre uzat."    (The saying exists in Armenian . . . any of you out there know how to write it?)  But what does it mean?  Can you help, dear reader?

As best as Marash Girl can figure, it means that if you want to keep your toes warm, you keep them under your blanket!  That's the metaphor, at any rate.

Okay . . . Now, dear reader, it's your turn. What is the true meaning of this expression?

As Marash Girl understands it, "Don't overstep your boundaries . . ."   Really?

Too Good To Be True!

A  friend and Marash Girl were chatting the other day, and the friend commented on someone they had both met recently at a party.

"My mother would have said,  Շատ լաւ, Լաւ չե! (Shud luv, luv ché!).  Or she might have chosen to say it in English: "Too good, no good!"

Or as Americans might put it, "Too good to be true!"

"Göz ichinde kalir"

A memory of a conversation between Uncle Paul and Marash Girl's father Peter, both of whom were born in Marash in the early 20th Century, and escaped  death at the hands of the Ottomans during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Newtonville, Massachusetts, 1960

Paul:  I just put down a deposit on the house on Page Road but Nectar is insisting that I should remove that deposit -- that she saw the house first!  

Peter: Why would you remove the deposit?  She could have put a deposit on the house herself!

Paul:  I have to remove my deposit and let her have it.  Göz ichinde kalir! (Marash Turkish) (In Istanbul Turkish, Gözün üstünde kalmasın!)  

Peter:  Are you crazy?  Forget the göz!

But Paul could not forget the göz, the "eye" (evil eye?) which would always be upon the house, jealous, envious, and possibly evil, should he buy it, so he graciously backed out of the sale and allowed his cousin Nectar to buy the house, much to Peter's dismay.

And so, awareness of the  "evil" eye was alive and well, even in the late 20th Century, even in the United States of America, even in a Christian family!

Even with folks who never wore the blue bead!

IN PERFECT ARMENIAN

Interwoven throughout THE PERFECT ARMENIAN (more on the book later), in perfect Armenian,   the author weaves Armenian customs and sayings. One that struck Marash girl as particularly poignant is the following.

 Ուշ ըլլայ, անուշ ըլլայ:

Oush ullah, anoush ullah.

When it is late, it is sweet. (Or in English, the later it is, the sweeter it is.)

Anyone out there disagree?

Armenians on Watermelon

People are like watermelon.  They may look good on the outside, but you never know what's on the inside!

Çek bakhiim!

"Çek bakhiim!"  Nishan chuckled as he offered the plate of chi kufte to his guests at the dining room table at 17 Dearborn Street.  

"Çek bakhiim!" chuckled Marash Boy as he quoted his father, offering dolma to Murat at the dinner table on Maple Avenue.   

Murat laughed.  "You're supposed to say that when you're offering me a drink of whiskey from a bottle.  You know!  Tip the bottle up and "chug" (in English) or "çek" in the Turkish of Marash!

"Oh," exclaimed Marash Boy.  "So that's why my father would chuckle every time he offered the platter of pilaf to the guests at our dining room table with the words, "Çek bakhiim!" He was playing on the phrase that he always used on Wilbraham Mountain when he offered a drink to his buddies straight from the bottle!"

Lucky in Love

When suitors came calling at 474 Lowell Ave . . . usually young Marashtsi Armenian men . . . Marash Girl, who typically had no interest in these young men, would offer to play tavlu with them.  (If you don't know what tavlu is, check the blog post below.)  Typically, though, Marash Girl would lose the game, and one particular suitor tried to comfort Marash Girl's disappointment with the words, "Lucky in love, unlucky in games."  Marash Girl is not sure whether that was a direct translation of an old Marashtsi saying, or simply an expression known world-wide, but she couldn't help smiling to herself.  If the young man was trying to comfort Marash Girl, he had just rung the death knell for his own potential relationship with her.  He had won the game, but not the girl!