Vardavar, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

On Sunday it was Vardavar, one of Armenia’s best known holidays that generally revolves around dousing complete strangers foolish enough to take to the streets with water. Unfortunately, because of the Hetq Photo Exhibition I didn’t take any photos this year, but I did blog something last year.

As with most festivals in Armenia, although now considered Christian, Vardavar in fact has its roots in pagan times and this variant of the festival is still carried out today by a small group of pagan Armenians. Actually, if the truth be known, most are not really pagans at all but believe that history goes back long before 301 AD when Armenians were the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as the official state religion.

It is a fun holiday, but this year seemed to be more manic than during previous years. Someone even told me that they saw at least two car crashes because of kids throwing buckets of water at traffic on the streets, and Nessuna says that she really hated this year’s holiday — as did a foreign visitor with her.

I hate vardavar

and all the people who think it is fun to throw water bags on passing cars or people crossing streets, along with people who think it’s fun to pour buckets(!!) of water on two girls, who are already soaked and they really don’t look like they enjoy being attacked by a wild crowd of stupid guys.

Like I said, I didn’t really observe Vardavar this year and despite being on the streets for much of the day running around trying to finalize the exhibition, I didn’t get wet once. However, a tourist in Armenia also disliked the tradition which to be honest, seems to have veered away from the time when roses were handed out and feasts were held by rivers, streams and lakes. Now it’s pretty much an anarchic water throwing event.

So yesterday was a former Pagan holiday in Armenia known as Vardavar - a water festival of sorts today celebrated along side a church feast day. To celebrate this holiday a mix of elderly and young people grab buckets, fill them with water and splash strangers. I was one of those strangers. Twice I was “violently” splashed up-side-the-head with buckets of water from elderly (80ish) women. While getting wet doesn’t usually ruin my day, catching a parasite in fetid water from a duck poop pond forced up your nose by a wisecrackin’ geriatric does. By that night, I was in excruciating pain and ended up sleeping on my bathroom floor. I had my first ineffective experience with Armenian healthcare and have been deliriously cursing the elderly all day.

Incidently, some photographs of Pagan Armenians celebrating Vardavar in Garni from some years back can be found online here. Photos of last year’s Vardavar can be found here.