It’s November 23, but it’s Already New Year’s
Today, a woman on public transport shared how her family is preparing to celebrate the New Year. They won’t be celebrating at home; they are going to Aparan. She said, “I try to convince everyone I can not to celebrate at home so they don’t have to suffer so much.”
It has become a habit: for several years now, they haven’t celebrated at home. Initially, she felt slighted by her children when other people went home with bags of groceries and she had nothing, but now she is grateful.
Although she won’t be at home, she is still preparing. Today is November 23. The woman is going to pick up her elder daughter, and then they will go together to the other daughter’s house to wrap “ishli and blinchik” (types of traditional Armenian dumplings/crepes) and put them in the freezer, so they don’t have to toil at the end of December.
It’s autumn outside, but in the freezer, it’s already winter, cold and full of food.
This is our reality: let there be no shortage of food, regardless of whether you will be home or not. And this reality has long been established; changing people’s consciousness is difficult. Stores are already providing the New Year’s mood: Santa Claus is already on the juice labels, and the city is decorated, so is it time to go shopping?