YEREVAN, August 25, /ARKA/. On August 26-27 the village of Zorakan in the Armenian province of Tavush, populated mostly by Armenian refugees from the village of Chardakhlu in Azerbaijan, will host the second festival called ‘Millennial Traditions’.
The coordinator of the festival Hovhannes Karapetyan told journalists today that the main purpose of the festival is to encourage the development of border regions and the restoration of old traditions. He said the residents of Zorakan used to have interesting traditions, which the festival is trying to restore. In his words, the festival will feature organic fruits and vegetables grown in the village.
The tourists, if they wish, will be able to participate in various daily activities of the residents, take a course on honey pumping, cooking traditional dishes, sewing a blanket, making home vodka and even sewing a donkey saddle.
They will also be offered the opportunity to prepare a traditional Armenian dish called "hophop", which is prepared of goose or chicken meat, onions and pomegranate. The participants of the festival will also take part in rural folk games – tug-of-war games and the traditional ritual called "nuru-nuru", believed in old times to help villagers ‘cause" rain.
Instead of hotels the guests will be staying at the homes of local residents. In the evening all the guests will gather around a bonfire to fry meat or potatoes, corn and sing songs. The next day, they will go to the nearest forest to gather cornel, blackberries and other berries, after which they will take pictures of a hundred-year-old tree with a huge hollow .
Until 1988 the village of Chardakhlu was located in Azerbaijan. Residents of the village were forced out of their homes by Azerbaijani authorities. The village is the birthplace of two marshals of the former USSR – Hamazasp Babajanyan and Ivan Baghramyan , as well as 12 army generals and seven heroes of the Soviet Union. –0–