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AN ODE TO THE ARMENIAN APRICOT
EurasiaNet.org
July 25 2013
July 25, 2013 - 5:27pm
A this blog wrote about in a previous post, apricots hold a
particularly important place in Armenian life, both culturally and
economically. Writing for the wonderful Mashallah News website,
journalist Liana Aghajanian delves deeper into this story, producing
a beautiful ode to the apricot. From Aghajanian's piece:
Indeed, there is not an apricot in the world that tastes like the
ones found in Armenia. It is more than just a piece of fruit - the
weight of a country and a diaspora's national psyche, with equal
parts tragedy and nostalgia, rests on its shoulders.
Scattered across the world by the horrors of a genocide at the turn of
the 20th century, the Armenian Diaspora's feet have always been on the
move, planted elsewhere by accident and circumstance, but constantly
pulled back by the heavy gravitational force of Armenia. As immigrants
in faraway lands struggling with a collective, passed down trauma and
relishing in the nostalgic notions of homeland - a place kept neatly
framed in scenic oil paintings hung on walls from Beirut to Boston,
there is an intense longing for home, a place to feel grounded and
whole in again, a place where an apricot can be so delicious, that
no other apricot found in any other corner of the world will do.
The feeling can only be described in words that have no direct
English translation. One of them is the Portuguese "Saudade", a deeply
melancholic state for the absence of something or someone. The other
is a Welsh word, "Hiraeth", defined by the University of Wales Trinity
Saint David as "homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the
lost or departed."
Forever homesick, Armenians are always searching for that fulfillment
of home, for what was lost to be found.
After leaving Armenia, I, too, was searching. My quest for the perfect
apricot however, turned out to be fruitless.
The full story, which thankfully has a happy ending, can be found
here: http://mashallahnews.com/?p=11192
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67306
EurasiaNet.org
July 25 2013
July 25, 2013 - 5:27pm
A this blog wrote about in a previous post, apricots hold a
particularly important place in Armenian life, both culturally and
economically. Writing for the wonderful Mashallah News website,
journalist Liana Aghajanian delves deeper into this story, producing
a beautiful ode to the apricot. From Aghajanian's piece:
Indeed, there is not an apricot in the world that tastes like the
ones found in Armenia. It is more than just a piece of fruit - the
weight of a country and a diaspora's national psyche, with equal
parts tragedy and nostalgia, rests on its shoulders.
Scattered across the world by the horrors of a genocide at the turn of
the 20th century, the Armenian Diaspora's feet have always been on the
move, planted elsewhere by accident and circumstance, but constantly
pulled back by the heavy gravitational force of Armenia. As immigrants
in faraway lands struggling with a collective, passed down trauma and
relishing in the nostalgic notions of homeland - a place kept neatly
framed in scenic oil paintings hung on walls from Beirut to Boston,
there is an intense longing for home, a place to feel grounded and
whole in again, a place where an apricot can be so delicious, that
no other apricot found in any other corner of the world will do.
The feeling can only be described in words that have no direct
English translation. One of them is the Portuguese "Saudade", a deeply
melancholic state for the absence of something or someone. The other
is a Welsh word, "Hiraeth", defined by the University of Wales Trinity
Saint David as "homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the
lost or departed."
Forever homesick, Armenians are always searching for that fulfillment
of home, for what was lost to be found.
After leaving Armenia, I, too, was searching. My quest for the perfect
apricot however, turned out to be fruitless.
The full story, which thankfully has a happy ending, can be found
here: http://mashallahnews.com/?p=11192
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67306