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[Yervant1]

MUSALER FEAST: 1915 ARMENIAN RESISTANCE REMEMBERED WITH 99 POTS OF HARISSA

Genocide | 22.09.14 | 18:00

NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow

By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

The fire burning and heating 99 pots is struggling against the pouring
rain and blowing wind. The energy of the fire shapes up like smoke and
mingles with the food bubbling in the pots. The smoke tears the eyes
of the men watching the pots but they endure. The flavor of cooking
lamb fills the air. By dawn half a ton of wheat would have got mixed
up with 600 kilograms of meat.

Poghos Gharibyan, 79, has been cooking 'harissa' for 50 years already.

The orange color of the fire reflects in his eyes. The heroic history
of Mount Musa (Musa Ler) is inscribed in the many wrinkles of his
face. He instructs that you cannot stir unless the wheat blossoms
like a flower.

"If you stir the starch will go to the bottom and stick. Each year
the number of pots increases by one, we will start stirring at dawn,
it is always enough for everyone," says Mount Musa Yoghunoluk village
born Gharibyan. "This year's celebration coincided with the 23rd
anniversary of our Independence, there is nothing accidental."

Annually on the second Sunday of September the neighborhood of the
Musa Ler statue height on the Yerevan-Echmiadzin highway is crowded.

People from Musaler living in Armenia and all around the world gather
here to cook the traditional sacrificial Harissa to celebrate the
heroic victory of the Musa Ler resistance and paying their respect
to the victims.

"We set aims and achieve them, we are a bit crazy, people from Mush
say. "I could give a buffalo, but would not repent," and those from
Musaler could give three buffalos but would not repent. Our character
shows our history. In 1915, 200 soldiers from Musaler joined the fight
against an army of 15,000. When there is no way out the crazy ones
find an exit. But for those crazy ones, there wouldn't have been the
heroic battle, the victory, today's celebration," says Sargis Zetlyan
from Musaler.

Musa Ler or Musa Dagh (which became famous thanks to Franz Werfel's
'40 Days of Musa Dagh' novel) was one of the few Armenian-populated
areas in the Hatay province of modern-day Turkey the inhabitants of
which did not obey the Turkish government, and its decree issued on
July 26, 1915. Under that order, Armenians were given only a week to
leave their houses and move toward Syrian deserts. Residents of six
villages climbed Mount Musa where they would make a stand for 40 days
until French ships rescued them and took them to Egypt.

In July 1919, the Musalertsis (people of Mount Musa) got an opportunity
to return home, where they found ruins instead of villages. But 20
years later, on July 23, 1939, the British diplomacy granted the
Alexandrete province, including Mount Musa, to Turkey. It became
impossible for Musalertsis to live in those territories, and they
left their villages forever. They settled in Pastit (Syria seaside)
and Ayntchar, Lebanon.

"In 1947 when the immigration started, [Soviet ruler Joseph] Stalin,
after learning about people from Musaler, set a special order saying
that those people are rebellious people and gathering them in one
place can endanger the state machine. That was the very reason we were
scattered around the whole Armenia - Gyumri, Vanadzor, Alaverdi - the
smallest number of people who could stay together was ten families,"
Zetlyan said.

Yesayi Chakhchakhyan from Musaler says that in the Soviet state full
of repression they still managed to form their patriotic union.

"During the most severe Soviet years - in the 1950s - the secret
Musaler group functioned, and my father, Hrant Chakhchakhyan, was in
it. The members of the group were arrested for running secret affairs
and were set free only after five years of imprisonment. They continued
their activities after their return. In 1961 without a permission
they announced about launching the Patriotic Union of Musalertsis
of Armenia which was the only union in the whole Soviet system,"
Chakhchakhyan tells.

While elderly Musalertsis remember the history, pronouncing the heroes'
names, the sound of youngsters' feet jumping on the ground to the
sound of the 129-year-old drum gets louder and 'kochari' turns into a
military dance - 'yarkhushta'. The night celebration is not disturbed
even by the shower and bad weather.

Sargis Zetlyan's drum beats evoke the sleepiest genes of the present.

The motherland is the kochari, zoorna, harissa getting cooked in
the pots and the bright light hovering on top of the height. 40 big
lanterns are burning on the opposite slope, they symbolize the 40
days of the Mount Musa resistance.

"The Musalertsis have a special attitude toward drums, it is a sign of
victory. To play drums means to win. My mother's grandfather brought
this drum with him in 1946. He was the best player in the region of
Haata, Hakob Tosunyan known as Davaj (tall). Now the Musalertsis
know that this is Davaj's drum. He met [French] General [Charles]
de Gaulle and [famous Armenian female fedayee] Sose Mayrig with this
drum," Zetlyan remembers.

He also remembers that in 1962 people would gather around his house
at the sound of the drum.

"My father, Paylak Zetlyan and his friend Hakob Frankyan stood at
the sources of this celebration. In 1965 guests from Leninakan and
Kirovakan [now Gyumri and Vanadzor] used to come and stay overnight at
our place... In 1966 it was celebrated in Echmiadzin. We had scholars
like Shiraz who got arrested after taking part in the celebration. The
ideology of the Soviet government was internationalism but suddenly
a group of people raise a problem of national character," Zetlyan said.

There are many tents, bonfires with old and new stories flowing on
the other side of the height. The 99 pots continue boiling. The best
dish in the world is being spiced by stories and memories of people
from Musa Ler, the dish they ate for 55 days on top of the mountain.

"When people climbed up the mount they took nothing extra with them,
only wheat and the animal that could climb the mountain - a goat and
a lamb, animals with huge stamina. Merging the wheat and the lamb
they had an ideally sterile food that contains no bacillus, and is
an antidote for the existing bacillus," explained Chakhchakhyan, a
psychologist by profession. Later on, this became bread for salvation,
oblation to be shared with people that brought energy. Musalertsis
are a perfect example of a human on the Earth."

The part where the harissa is being cooked has six stone windows from
where cooks in white gowns will serve it to the people.

Petros Gharibyan explained that each window stands for a village in
Mount Musa.

"Here we have Khdrbek, next to it - Kebusie, Vagf, Yoghunoluk, Haji
Habibi, Bitias, people used to line up in front of respective windows.

Then we saw that the locals get offended and now we do not pay
attention to the villages, now the celebration is all-Armenian. Today
everyone is from Mount Musa," Gharibyan said.

http://armenianow.co...arissa_genocide
 

[onjig]

Greetings, We were in Musaler 2007. They fed all who came. They made everything, the cheese, the wine, the bread, the olives and the harissa or Jidaboor, depending on where your parents came from. 

 

We arrived late, still they fed us.

 

We have film from that day, film we pushed, the speed on. No one seems to be able to develop it. Maybe Uncle Arnold, if it isn't too much for him, he's 96, hasn't used his dark room for a while.

[MosJan]

stop by at your  local Walgreens many  stores do have Film Developing

[MosJan]

was you  at Lusaler Armenia or Musaler / Vaqef  ?

[Arpa]

Just so we save the picture before it is removed.
http://www.armeniano...arissa_genocide

99 CAULDRONS** OF HERISSA , ONE FOR EACH YEAR SINCE 1915

http://www.armeniano...er-harisa_0.jpg


**Cauldron= ԿԱԹՍԱՅ

[onjig]

MosJan, The film was pushed, shot at a faster or slower shutter speed than the film called for,it's written on the tubes, this can be allowed for in the darkroom. This was done to use the films we had with different asa speeds in different light conditions. At Walgreens they will put it in their machine and it will be underexposed or overexposed depending on shutter speed. If we don't find a real photo shop, I can stop being lazy and use Uncle Arnold's darkroom, well I can develop the film here in a hand tank, but it still has to be enlarged. 

The girls can see how we use to process film, all our cameras are now digital. We still have rolls of film worth finishing. People still use film.

 

 

 

 

http://forums.poppho...oice-at-ASA-200

 

http://shoottokyo.com/pushing-film/

Edited by onjig, 26 September 2014 - 12:15 PM.