WIYU-Arm

A youth exchange “Wedding Traditions” took place in Lusakert, Armenia from 4th to 13th September, 2007. Ther were 29 participants from England, Estonia, Italy, Moldavia, Ukraine and Armenia. This project was implemented within the framework of Youth in Action and the organizers were World Independent Youth Union (Armenia) and Minorities of Europe (UK) NGOs. The participants presented their countries’ wedding traditions during nine days. During nine days participating countries presented their wedding traditions. All of them were well prepared.

During the arrival day while all groups would reach Lusakert a small number of arrived participants took an occasion of free time and went to Lake Sevan, visited Sevan Monastery, admired beautiful nature and nice weather. Some even swam. In the evening full of new impressions and overwhelmed with warm September sun everybody returned to Lusakert.

Although during non-formal communication almost everybody knew each other’s names the first day started with playing some “Icebreakers” and name-remembering games. During next working days the participants had a chance to present their wedding traditions, discuss modern rituals and ideology of family creation, talk about multi-national and multi-religious weddings, have cultural visits and see a real Armenian wedding.

All in all six different weddings were presented, some countries such as England and Italy chose to present a modern wedding in a funny manner. The Italian group showed not only wedding traditions but also how couples get to know each other and how the relations go on before wedding. The group from UK presented also typical traditions before the wedding such as the last party with best friends before going to be married. It was a special pleasure to watch the presentations of Moldova, Ukraine and Estonia because they made a performance in real national wedding clothes.

During the wedding party a lot of funny games were played, for example in the Moldavian wedding some girls stood in a line together with the “bride” and the “groom” with tied eyes had to find his bride by touching girls’ legs. Armenia also presented its traditional wedding and choose a very interactive way to involve the whole audience into the wedding.

During the youth exchange every country had an opportunity to present its national dishes. On the first evening Armenian and Italian groups organized traditional dinner with Armenian brandy, dolma, Italian pizza, spaghetti and many other delicious foods and drinks. Moldavian group performed its traditional wedding together with food and drinks, small gifts for all and a game aimed at teaching the participants basic Moldavian. Ukrainian and UK traditional table was full of dishes the preparation of which required several hours and involvement of whole group. The queen of Estonian evening was the typical Estonian chocolate.

 During next working days the participants made discussions about the origin and changes of national traditions as well as intercultural and inter-religious marriages among different groups. And after listening to each other’s opinion groups of participants came to a conclusion and introduced their group’s viewpoints through small sketches and games. It was very interesting and made all of us to think about some issues and offer new solutions.

A special topic were the energizers. Everybody will remember all their life the sentence “People lets make a circle!”. They heard this sentence maybe  thousand times and soon it started to become a running gag. To make a circle was a starting sentence for all  energizers. After some days the girls from England made a suggestion to make not only circles but also other shapes like star or triangular. Everyone was given a chance to lead an energizer. 

There were three anniversaries during the project and the organizers did their best to make those days unforgettable and unique for them. In the evenings they talked quietly and listened to sweet sounds of the guitar little by little forming a warm friendly atmosphere.

The participapants also visited Sardarapat Museum, Echmiatzin Cathedral, and they witnessed an Armenian wedding in Saint Hripsime Church.

In the morning of the last day everybody was very nervous as we had a final task as a group to prepare an exhibition of photos prepared and chosen by participants during the exchange. The representatives of TV channels interviewed our guests from UK and Estonia and asked what was the most surprising and pleasant thing for them in Armenia. The team leader of UK group Jaroslaw Wisniewski talked also about Youth in Action thanks to which participants from EU and EECA met and discussed themes interesting for all of them. The day continued with sharing future project ideas and youth exchange evaluation.   

According to the received feedbacks, participants liked our mountains and each of them would like to see the Biblical Ararat where Noah’s Arc landed. Besides they liked our capital, especially at night. The participants also appreciated Armenian hospitality and delicious food.

 Finally  came the time of farewell! It was emotional! All became close and good friends during those few days. All of us got unforgettable memories to remember all our life.

Written by WIYU member Seda Shahgyaldyan AND by WIYU EVS volunteer Florian Prommegger