 | Armenia Local Customs | Tips 1 - 10 of 22 |  |
Popular Local Customs | Other Local Customs Tips | All Tips (22) Armenians are overwhelmingly members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, whose head, the "Katholikos" has his seat at Ejmiatsin. Armenians are the first nation to adopt Christianity as the official religion of their state (301 A.D.).
The Armenian church is sometimes called the Gregorian Church because it was founded in Armenian by St. Gregory the Illuminator.
When visiting any Armenian Church it is normal on entry to buy candles and then light them while making prayers and then placing them upright in the trays of sand. The candles usually cost somewhere in the neighborhood of US 10-20 cents.
One other fact about visiting churches in Armenia is that it is correct to leave a church walking backwards so as not to turn one's back on God.
This photograph was taken at Geghard Monastery. To read more about Geghard Monastery and its unusual architecture, please visit Gehard Monastery Leave a Comment
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Many families except for those living in flats grow as much food as they can with all the family members, children included, working hard planting potatoes, corn and other vegetables by hand and subsequently harvesting them, again by hand.
In late summer women can be encountered in the villages winnowing grain, preserving fruit for the winter by drying it in the sun, and making fruit juices and home made vodkas to last through the winter.
Perhaps the most conspicuous problem is that of water supply. Leaking mains mean that water supply in most towns and cities has to be restricted to a few hours a day to prevent large quantities running away to waste.
In rural areas water has either to be obtained from the village spring and carried in buckets, or else there might be a well in the garden. In both urban and rural areas water has to be stored in quantity for use when needed. I am sure you will come across this fact very early into your travels within Armenia even if you're staying in hotels with no water supply problems. Leave a Comment
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If you've ever been to the Geghard Monastery in Armenia, you may have come across musicians playing traditional Armenian instruments outside by the car park. The instruments consist of the Accordion, the "Zourna" which is a wind instrument with a very loud noise and the "Dhol" which is a form of percussion....
The picture is of the musicians playing traditional music at a wedding outside the reception hall before the bride and the groom enter the hall.
You will also see traditional instruments playing the music at "Old Yerevan" restaurant in Yerevan.. For more information please click Old Yerevan link. Leave a Comment
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Another frequent sight outside churches in Armenia is a tree or shrub to which numerous scraps of cloth are tied. Each scrap is attached by a person making a private prayer.
We witnessed this phenomenone at nearly all the churches we visited in Armenia. The photograph is taken at Haghartsin Monastery by a khachkar where people have tied articles of clothing, usually handcershiefs to the tree outside the main church structure. Leave a Comment
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Despite all the difficulties of life, Armenians are generous to a fault. Desperately poor people welcome you into their homes and provide refreshments, often unintentionally embarrassing western visitors who feel awkward about accepting from those who obviously have so much less. (Trust me on this, you will know after you've visited a few families in the villages how it feels).
Especially in rural areas, people are fascinated by the few westerners who appear and are genuinely touched that people from so far away could even have heard of Armenia let alone be interested enough to come. Leave a Comment
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Many families through out Armenia keep their own livestock and even in towns cattle and sheep can often be seen being tended by a family member. In some areas free-range pigs wander freely through the village foraging for food.
Armenians are very hard working, even more important now when so much work has to be done by hand because machinery, fertilisers, weedkillers and pesticides are all unaffordable. This fact ofcourse has the incidental benefit of making much Armenian food organic. Leave a Comment
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In front of Khor Virap visitors can buy pigeons. Someone told me they are sacrificed, someone told me they were let to fly at an outdoor altar.
Anyway, at Khor Virap there is a place were animals (for ex sheep) are sacrificed.
It is belived that these old pagan rites were accepted because Armenia became a christian country very early and by keeping some old traditions it was easier to get people to convert to the new religion. Leave a Comment
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It is not a matter of course that all Armenian homes have got running water in the taps. At Gayane's homestay in Yerevan there was just running water for 2,5 hours in the morning and for 1,5 hours in the evening. Therefor she always had water in the bath to use in between. At the hotel where I stayed in Alaverdi there was no running water at all. Leave a Comment
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In the trees and bushes by the river passing Geghard Monastery there is a lot of stripes of cloths tied to the branches.
It is a religious custom saying that prayers will be answerd if you tie a strip of cloth to a tree near the monastery. Leave a Comment
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From our hotel in Yerevan we walked to the markethall. This hall was the place were people, mostly women, were allowed to sell their private vegetables. We saw that they were selling apples, carrots, beets, herbs and strawberries.
Prices were higher at this market than in the official Soviet shops in those former days. We visited Yerevan in 1986. Leave a Comment
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on August 26, 2004
on November 22, 2003
on February 20, 2005
