Living the life of a Lebanese-Armenian woman

Mayranoush Soghomonian, my grandmother, lives at her home in Pasadena, California with her husband Artin Soghomonian.  Every day she cleans her home and until today, enjoys her childhood hobby of sowing for other people.  Another hobby of hers is reading Armenian and English books and explaining them to other people.  Also, she makes great tasting food that she learned to make as a child in Lebanon.  She likes to maintain her health by walking every morning even though she is seventy-one years old.  Her childhood town was Mansourieh, Lebanon.  It had a population of about 7000-8000 people at her time, but now about 17000 people populate it.  My grandmother always appreciates what she has and always loves to be with her family.  One thing that my grandmother always does is that if she has guests coming over, she makes enough food to feed an army of men even though it might be only a few people.  She is very considerate and thoughtful in all of her actions.

There were many different types of people in Mansourieh.  The Armenians, Arabs and Greeks made up the population. Everyone loved each other.  Also, the rich and the poor could be set apart very easily.  The rich would wear very clean and cute clothing, and eat tasty food.  The poor could not buy what they wanted but they were happy.

There were two kinds of religions there.  The Christians and the Muslims.    There were more Christians than Muslims.  The Christians would celebrate mass and have Sunday school every Sunday.  I remember the teachings of Sunday school very well.  We learned many songs, prayers and hymns and we listened to the sermon.  The Christians and Muslims never put differences amongst themselves.

When I was young, going to church would be my first priority.  I would also go outside and play with my friends.  We played very interesting games.  One game that we loved to play was Chellig, which was played with a piece of wood and a smaller piece of wood.  We would have to hit the smaller piece of wood with the big piece and whoever hit it the farthest would win the game.  This is similar to baseball, but baseball is more modern. 

Adults in Mansourieh spent their free time by gathering to go to church and praying or having dinner together.  The children would play outside and have good times with each other.

There was no specific source of information in Mansourieh.  There were a few newspapers in Mansourieh named Masis, Zartonk, and Aztak.  We received these papers about once a week, if that.  It was very hard to transport these papers from the main cities.  There were no phones, televisions or radios for the poor, but the rich could afford these luxuries.  The church would announce any important information from the government or if the news had something to do with people. 

We had a few festivities in Mansourieh.  One was Christmas.  During Christmas, everyone would go to church.  We would build Christ’s manger and put them in people’s homes.  We would decorate our homes, put trees in our homes and at night, we would go from home to home and sing Christmas carols.  This would make us very happy because people gave us money and we were able to buy things for the church.

Another festivity in Mansourieh that was celebrated was Easter.  For Easter, we would boil eggs at home and then color them.  Children would bring the eggs with them wherever they went and we would have egg fights.  Whoever won these egg fights would take the eggs home and they would give the eggs to their parents.  The naughty boys would fill wax in their eggs.  The parents would make egg salad with the eggs.  People would also celebrate Paregentan (Halloween).

We learned to make many types of food in Mansourieh.  There was Tabouleh, Hummus, Chikofteh, which was made out of raw meat, and Kebab.  Some of these foods were difficult to make because they needed a lot of ingredients to taste good. 

For breakfast, we ate Oregano bread, boiled eggs, and Boreg.  As for lunch, we ate Tabouleh, Hummus, olive, and salad.  These were all very tasty food.  After we finished eating our food and there were leftovers, we would give it all to the poor and to an orphanage because certain types of food were expensive.

I went to school until sixth grade.  The school that I went to was Sahag Mesrob Daderian School.  The classrooms were very crowded because there were only a few classrooms.  We had to learn four languages including Armenian, Arabic, English, and French. 

People were not similarly educated because the poor could not afford to send their children to schools past sixth grade.  The rich would send their children to different countries so that they would receive proper education. 

College was also very expensive which meant that the rich were only able to send their children to school.  They would go to school in France and some went to England.  Also some went to the American University of Lebanon because it was a very good school.  I was not able to go to college because we did not have the money.

When Lebanon received independence in 1943, we had a big celebration.  There were firecrackers, flags, and songs.  The independence made Lebanon better because the government became better.

We were four sisters and two brothers.  I was the second oldest.  We were a poor family but after I was married, my father’s situation became better and my siblings were able to go to school.

My father baked and made bread.  He worked very hard.  He had six children.  He was the only one in the family that worked and always wanted us to go to school to get a good education.

My family has all stuck together since Mansourieh.  We have all grown, gotten married, had children and grandchildren.  We have all become one large family and have stuck together. 

When I was young I had no worries because my father took care of us, but now I have a family and I worry about them and hope that they become good people and have good lives.  I valued my small town experience because everyone knew each other and we were all happy together in Mansourieh. 

      Interviewed by Armen Darakjian