In Nagorno-Karabakh, young people celebrate New Year by ancient traditions

On January 9, young people from different regions of Nagorno-Karabakh celebrated the New Year's Day in accordance with the ancient traditions of Karabakh. The unusual celebration took place in the village Khachmach of the Askeran District, one of the oldest villages of the republic.

More than twenty activists from all regions of the republic have gathered in the village of Khachmach. Young people together with the villagers prepared traditional Christmas dishes and laid Karabakh holiday table.

The idea of the event belongs to ethnographer Mariam Pilafyan and Anait Khuduyan, a staff member of the District Department of Culture, both residents of the Shaumyan District.

Ethnographer Mariam Pilafyan emphasizes that many Karabakh traditions, especially the celebration of the New Year, considered lost. "I have studied and restored all details of New Year celebrations in Artsakh (Karabakh), and, thus, we tried to restore all the traditions," she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to Mariam Pilafyan's story, being led by the women from the village of Khachmach, young people baked Karabakh bread and Christmas cake "Taregata" under the old recipe in a traditional oven tonir (oven, dug into the ground and lined with bricks).

For Anya Ovannisyan, a participant of the event, the New Year celebration in compliance with the old traditions became a revelation. "I was not familiar with those traditions, and I did not know that there are certain rituals that were followed by our ancestors," the young woman said.