The Armenians began to arrive on the current territory of Bukovina in the XI-XIII century, interacting with the locals as successful traders in the Eurasian area. Over the next centuries, merchants created various warehouses for goods in Bucovina, in time they came with family or friends and stayed here. Bukovina was attractive to Armenians because of its economic and religious freedoms. The Armenian merchants are also mentioned in the Chrysostom of the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Good from October 4, 1408, in which for the first time the name of the city of Chernivtsi is documented.

After 1774, the Armenians obtained a special status, having favorable conditions both for economic activities and for the preservation of the confessional and linguistic identity on the territory of the Austrian Empire. In 1820, 30 Armenian families lived in Chernivtsi. On October 9, 1875, the Armenian Catholic Church “Holy Apostles Peter and Paul” appeared, which became a cultural-spiritual center of the Armenians.

In 1998, by the decision of the Chernivtsi Regional Council, the Jewish religious community obtained a separate status, and the divine service returned to his home in the Armenian Church. It was a great event for the Armenian community after a long period of the communist regime. In addition to the church in Chernivtsi there is a Sunday school, where about 20 children learn the Armenian language and elements of Armenian culture. Also, the young Armenians initiated the process of setting up a student organization. The Armenian community is not large, numbering about 300-500 people, of which there are about 60 active members of the community who assume their identity and participate in cultural events. Despite this small number, the Armenian community has a precious intangible cultural heritage, which deserves to be promoted and known.

The first mayor of Chernivtsi, in the context of offering the status of self-governing locality, was an ethnic Armenian. This is Iacob von Petrovici. During this period the city experienced an economic revival. Petrovici was born in 1815. He dedicated his whole life to the city of Chernivtsi, but also to the ethnic community he represented.

Thanks to the efforts of Mayor Petrovici, Chernivtsi managed to overcome the famine of 1864-1865, the epidemics of typhus and cholera in 1866. Various legends and stories about the tireless mayor were preserved in Chernivtsi, who did everything possible to save the lives of Chernivtsi. The mayor created a modern system in those times of anti-epidemic protection, fire protection, arrangement of the streets of Chernivtsi. This ethnic Armenian, the first mayor of self-governing Chernivtsi, was mentioned with the order of the third degree of the Royal Crown.

He died on November 2, 1869 in the city of Chernivtsi. A bust of the Armenian mayor was installed on Ruska Street in the old city of Bukovina, his portrait is placed in the session hall of the Chernivtsi city council. The life model and political activity of Iacob von Petrovici is one to follow for today’s leaders. At the Petrovici monument, members of the Armenian community from Chernivtsi gather, but also the representatives of the local authorities, in order to preserve the memory of the people of Chernivtsi about the mayor with a big heart.

A conference dedicated to Iacob Petrovici is also taking place in Chernivtsi – “Historical portrait. Iacob von Petrovici: The father of the city with Armenian roots ”. It is worth mentioning that thanks to Petrovici in Chernivtsi, the Armenian Church was built. He bought with his own money a plot of land in the center of Chernivtsi and founded a committee to raise funds for the construction of the church. The building was designed by Josef Hlávka, a Czech architect, who also owns the architectural project of the Residence of the Metropolitans of Dalmatia and Bukovina.

The greeting of the Lord is one of the fixed holidays of the Armenian Church and is celebrated forty days after Christmas. Welcoming the Lord means “Coming before the Lord” or “Coming out before the Lord,” and its message is the call to go out before the Lord.

The Feast of the Lord’s Reception is one of those holidays in which the faithful, after leaving the church, spend their own customs and festivities. Numerous customs and traditions from the Old Testament and the pre-Christian era, were transformed by the coming of Christ into the world taking on Christian meanings. One of these customs is the fire on the day of the Feast of the Lord. The ancient peoples attached great importance to fire, attributing to it purifying powers. According to the Christian custom, on the eve of this holiday, the fire is lit in the churchyard and in the courtyards of the houses of the faithful. The newlyweds, as well as their relatives and neighbors, jump over the fire. It was believed that jumping over the fire removed disease, bad luck and all the other bad things.

However, the fire of the Feast of the Lord has another meaning. If in the pagan period the lighting of fire, the jumping over it and the popular custom of dancing around it were part of the ritual of worshiping fire as God, in the Christian period, these manifestations give fire the quality of God’s creation, it is dedicated to God. Armenians believe that fire has the quality of cleansing, sanctifying and empowering. It is seen as a quality of the Holy Spirit and symbolizes the presence of God. Therefore, the fire during the feast of the Feast of the Lord, entered among the customs of the Armenian Church probably considering its biblical significance.

In Chernivtsi, the Welcome of the Lord also has a local significance. The priest welcomes all new couples, being young people who have recently created a new family. Young people jump over a fire to leave all the evil behind and enter purified during the marriage. Great habit and the role of socialization and contact between members of the community not too big.

Along with jumping over the fire, another traditional process of purifying the body and soul of Armenians is sprinkling with water. If the fire purifies, then the water, according to Armenian beliefs, brings prosperity. Water fighting is an Armenian tradition preserved all over the world. Armenians dance and splash water every year in early August or July, a custom that has existed for thousands of years. Armenians, in fact, in the past thanked the goddess for the harvest. During the summer, they fought with water and thus thanked the goddess for her help and asked her to help them have a rich harvest at the end of the year. Water splashing is preserved as usual in northern Bukovina, but it has acquired a Christian significance.

Vartavar, the equivalent of the feast of the Transfiguration, usually takes place after the sermon. Armenians recognize that this is a popular tradition, which was before Christianity among the Armenian people, but after the Armenians became Christians, the patriarch kept the old customs. The fathers of the Armenian Church would have linked the Christian holidays to the old ones, changing their meaning. Thus a Christian meaning appeared in the case of this custom, being a symbol of cleansing and prosperity.

The best preserved samples of folklore are folk songs, performed either occasionally at some events and celebrations in the life of the community, or in the process of educating children, or simply for pleasure. The best represented genre in popular literature is that of fairy tales. Bukovinian Armenians have preserved many local proverbs, some of which have created cultural interference.

Armenian mothers put their children to sleep with songs, which vary, according to the locality, the mother’s education and circumstances. Here is such a lullaby:
“Sleep, my little one, close your eyes,
Let your baptized eyes fall asleep,
My child, here he is falling asleep.
The golden cross around your neck,
Be careful, the priest tied him to you.
I hung the blue beads on you
For the eyes, do not cry, sleep!
Every day, your awake mother,
Asleep, watch over your cradle.
I rock you to sleep and grow,
Cry with your heart not to hurt me,
You sleep, so that I may sleep,
Holy Mother of God, give sleep to my child! ”

Armenian proverbs are in great demand in northern Bukovina, as a source of wisdom. We present some of these: “The wise man is like the sun, the whole word sun gives birth. The foolish man is like a serpent, he always hurts a man “,” He is a man who is worth a thousand, there are people who are not worth anything. The one who is worth a thousand, before the fool, means nothing! ”,“ Do not commit iniquity, take the reward from the heavenly One! ”,“ The elders said: what use is the black soap and the fool’s burden? in the distance he is cold and at heart “,” Man does not know man, he invites him to church at midnight “,” He stole from thief, God saw and wondered “,” I tell you, daughter, You listen, daughter-in-law! ”,“ Better a poor horse than no horse at all, the bad one and the snake cracks “,” Care for a year, work for an hour “,” Make my mother praise her daughter “,” Three days, emperor, forty years, at home, argat “,” Each he loves the one like him “,” The dog, barking a lot, brings wolves “.
Armenian stories, legends and proverbs are closely linked to Christian morality. The winner of the battles between good and evil is always good, and the innocent is always supported by God. An example is the myth “God does not let the innocent perish”:

“Many years ago there lived a poor, innocent girl, who was very beautiful and caught the eye of the beholder. Nearby lived a count, a prostitute who spent his entire life in depravity. This duke had set his eyes on the girl who lived in a hut, alone earning her bread by the sweat of her brow. Her only companion was a dude who was fiercely defending his mistress.

Once, the girl went to pick strawberries. The duke had learned this and had sneaked on that road to disturb her. Thus, he reached the girl’s face and hugged her tightly, whispering sweet words in her ear. The girl’s screams had been heard by the young man, who jumped on the duke’s back and tore him to pieces. He let go of the frightened girl, who had arrived home.

At the same time, many people were working in the field, who saw the girl and the dog hurrying home. They found the duke dead and declared that the girl was the murderer. Because of her beauty, the girl was envied, and now those who hated her brought her to court. Angry people had already convicted her and the court decided to sentence her to death. Then the dog approached and the dead duke’s wounds began to bleed. The audience was amazed by this, and the girl, crying, declared that the duke who was following her had been killed by the dog. Because she told the truth, the girl was released and rewarded. “

Armenians who go to the Armenian Church in Chernivtsi have holidays similar to the Orthodox ones. The main holidays are Easter and Christmas. In the Easter basket, unlike the Orthodox Christians, the Armenians necessarily lay a red egg, which symbolizes the blood shed by Jesus Christ. It also puts in the basket greenery, which symbolizes a new life. In this Easter basket the Armenians put fish and wine. This drink is considered the blood of Christ and on most Christian holidays, but also in the family, certain wine is drunk.

When an Armenian dies, relatives, acquaintances and neighbors gather at the house of the deceased to comfort the family of the deceased. She constantly cries and cries for the dead, in fact she used to pay mourners in the past, who aimed to mourn the dead, while he is exposed in the house and to spend him, mourning, to the grave.
The dead man, after a wax cross was placed in his hand, and on top of it, a silver coin, sits in a coffin, adorned with flowers. When they are all ready for the funeral, the coffin is removed from the house. A priest walks in front of the crowd. They all head to the church, where the dead man is buried and then he goes to the cemetery. In the past, on the way to church and cemetery, mourners mourn the dead, his mother or mother-in-law.
Here is the improvisation of a mourner, next to the coffin of a young man, described by the researcher Dimitrie Dan in the book “Bukovinian Ethnicities”:
“Your son did not die, he did not die,
He went down into the garden, into the valley,
He picked roses and in his head and put them,
He fell asleep at the smell of them! ”
After the funeral, all participants return, along with
the priest at the house of the dead, to morally support the family of the deceased. Then they all sit at the table and give alms to the poor. Usually, on Mondays, it is not the custom for Armenians to have burials, as it is believed that one or more burials will follow each day of the week.

Lavash is the traditional Armenian bread, also known in the Chernivtsi region.

Ingredients: 500 gr. flour, 300 ml.  water, 2 teaspoons of dry yeast, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of salt.

Method of preparation: Mix flour, yeast and salt. Mix the water and oil. The mixer can be used or hand mixing as in the past for 5-10 minutes. The dough should become smooth and elastic, slightly moist. Grease a bowl with oil, put the dough in the bowl. Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour and a half. A fire is made in the oven.
Break off a piece the size of a tangerine from the dough (the dough is covered after removing it). Put flour on a piece of baking paper, roll out the dough with a rolling pin as thin as possible, max. 2 mm thick, like a sheet of paper. Slide into the baking tray, put in the oven for 90 seconds and as they come out of the oven, stack and cover. It can be consumed immediately after cooling.

Armenian barbecue is very tasty, being a traditional dish of Armenians everywhere. Place the lamb chops in their marinade, the night before cooking.

Ingredients: 8 lamb chops. For the marinade: 1/2 onion (chopped), 1/4 cup / 60 ml. parsley (chopped), 30 ml. vegetable oil, 20 ml. tomato paste, 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1/4 teaspoon of tangerine powder.

Method of preparation: All ingredients must be chopped and mixed. The kitchen robot can also be used until a puree or other homogeneous mass is obtained. Place the sliced ​​lamb chops in a resealable plastic bag. Pour the marinade over the top of the sealing bag and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
Preheat the grill. Remove the chop from the bag and place on the grill. Cook over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Once cooked, remove from heat and garnish with a little parsley. Serve with rice pilaf.