Festival Of Nations Albany NY

Member Nation : Armenia

The Albany region of New York is home to over 5,000 Armenians. Over time, they have built strong communities in the surrounding towns. At the heart of the Armenian community, a variety of churches are open to the public, St. Peter's Armenian Apostolic Church which can be found in Watervliet, Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church in Troy, and the United Armenian Calvary, which is also in Troy.

The Armenian community in upstate New York is constantly growing. Armenian organizations, who take an active stance in the community, help plan annual festivals in honor of Armenian foods and traditions. Some of these organizations include Armenian National Committee of Albany, the Armenian Youth Federation Shoushi Chapter and, lastly, the Knights of Vartan.

Knights of Vartan, Inc. was found in 1916, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Knights of Vartan was initially created to help fleeing Armenian immigrants seek refuge from the genocide being committed by Ottoman Turkey at the time. Now, the Knights of Vartan aspire to educate the public about Armenia culture, heritage, and history. With 1600 members, nationally, and about 40 members, locally, the Knights of Vartan are have 24 chapters. The Davros Chapter is located in Troy, New York.

Culture

The alphabet was invented in AD 405 by and consists of thirty-nine letters, three of which were added during the 96% of the people in the country speak Armenian, while 75.8% of the population additionally speaks Russian, although English is becoming increasingly popular.

Ethnic Cuisine

Armenian cuisine is closely related to eastern and various and combine to present unique dishes. The main characteristics of Armenian cuisine are a reliance on the quality of the ingredients rather than heavily spicing food, the use of herbs, the use of wheat in a variety of forms, of legumes, nuts, and fruit (as a main ingredient as well as to sour food), and the stuffing of a wide variety of leaves.
1) Armenian yalanchi - stuffed rice grape leaves
or could be called toli-ma urartu armenian langauage origins 3000bc
grape leaves=toli
wrapped =ma toli-ma
2) Meech - Bulgur wheat with specail tomato paste/puree spices
3) Armenian birdnest - Apecial armenian dessert
filo dough , walnuts and special syrup
4) Choreg - Armenian sweet sesame bread or roll
5) Simit - Armenian crispy sesame cookie