As guest blogger Tamar Palandjian, Youth Program Coordinator for the Civil Society Institute, recently announced on this site, today was Barekendan. Explaining that the event was staged to urge society, and especially youth, to wake up from what many civil society activists consider to be a slumber, Tamar detailed what is still a traditional festival.

This Armenian holiday is celebrated on Sunday, the day before Lent begins. Similar to the Western traditions of Mardi Gras or Carnival, it is a day in which people are encouraged to come out of their traditional roles and play games, jokes and eat and drink merrily prior to fasting. Barekendan comes from two words - bari which means “good” and kendan or the shortened version of kendani, which means “alive” or “living”.

On her Live Journal page, another civil society activist, Isabella Sargsyan, went a little further. Sargsyan explains that on this day people wear masks and costumes and are called upon to be uninhibited in their actions while also “truly expressing their opinions.”

Seeing as how the Parliamentary elections of 2007 are critical for the democratization processes in Armenia, Barekendan serves as an ideal occasion for the civil society activists to call upon their fellow dormant citizens to “wake up” and become involved.

Armenia Now ran an article on the last Barekendan held in 2005.

Barekendan is a long-forgotten festival that has been revived as a form of civil action.

[…]

Young people staged demonstrations last year in defense of political prisoners and freedom of speech. Barekendan provides an opportunity to express discontent with the reigning morality in the country in new forms.

“We understood that our demonstrations were not enough. Perhaps everything should be said in direct text,” says Sona Hovhannisyan, a lecturer at Yerevan’s Bryusov Linguistic University. “On Barekendan people can get rid of their social roles and say whatever they think, like the master and servant changing places. We used this occasion to say what we want.”

This year, the protesters used the festival to say what they think about the authorities. “Don’t take bribes,” says Lala Aslikyan. “On Barekendan, you can say whatever you think about people straightforwardly.”

The Armenian Libertarian-Socialist Movement welcomes such an approach in order to encourage youth to become more involved and aware of the political processes underway in Armenia, and says that the approach is common among alternative groups in Europe.

A Panegyric/carnival is being organized in Yerevan on the day of Barekentan, and it’s important that as many people as possible go. For Anarchists these kind of events are very important. They soon become very political - like for instance, in Europe Anarchists no longer do demonstrations - instead, they do Carnivals. Communal Panegyrics and celebrations in all cultures since ancient times have been a way of protest against and rejoicing despite the tyranies of the day – it has been a way to manifest their collective rebelous spirit in a festive way. It has often been a piss-take of authorities — A way of Reclaiming what is permanently theirs (Streets, Public wealth, or maybe just Rice with raisins).

Barekendan, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian, CRD / TI Armenia 2007

Although the participants were not anarchists, one of the main purposes of the event was to raise awareness of the need to participate in the coming parliamentary election. About 150 mainly young Armenians assembled in the park opposite the Conservatory in Yerevan and marched to the Marshall Baghramian Metro to ride back down to Republic Square.

The group, blowing whistles while handing out alarm clocks with messages attached, to passerbys then returned to the park where the procession initially started to enjoy a free open air concert by Gyumri rock band, Bambir. Although attendance was small, there were some noticeable figures from civil society in attendance.

There was also at least one member of the opposition present, along with two government figures. Public TV were there as well.

The organizers seemed pleased and collected email addresses in order to send out announcements for future events which they plan to hold every second Sunday until the 12 May election. Interestingly, USAID has also apparently pencilled in Rock The Vote type activities in their proposed election-related assistance for Armenia.

Of course, it’s hard to say whether civil society will manage to activate youth in time for the election, and this point was not lost on one blogger in attendance, Zarchka from Life Around Me. Although she welcomes the event and says that people obviously enjoyed themselves, she concludes that the message wasn’t understood by some.

A young man to who a girl gave an alarm-clock with a note “Զարթնելու՞ ես”, “Will you wake up?” turned to me and said; “Ինչի քնած էի՞”, which supposed an affected tone that someone tells him to wake up, and while I’d explain what it was for, mainly stressing that they must be active in every sphere what regards to this country, he mumbled discontentedly: “Դե թողեք հանգիստ քնենք Էլի…(let us sleep calmly)”. Ok, no worries… Հետո չասեք Դավիթ գող-գող եկավ գնաց…

One poster that I’m not afraid to say was the highlight of the parade, grasped everyone’s attention and made everyone laugh, especially when passing the government building on Republic Square. It said “Քի°չ կեր”… “Don’t eat much!” …And we all know what it meant…)))

Yes, people had fun, everything was fine, everyone was joyous, happy, with wide smiles. People who have always been active, will remain that for good, that’s in nature. But I think the message of awakening the people around and calling them to become involved and moreover, further democratization process, was lost in the shouting and all the colors of the day, because most of the passer-bys didn’t understand what was going on. Young people are just celebrating barekendan - that is what they’d get. So their wakening up from dormancy is still in question, methinks.

Understanding that efforts to mobilize youth and stimulate their interest in the coming election will be difficult, the organizers nonetheless seemed satisfied with the day’s event and plan to hold another on Sunday 4 March. Apparently, that might be staged in order to raise awareness of the need for press freedom in Armenia.

In the meantime, as some of the organizers and participants have their own blogs, there will be updates to this post when more accounts are available.

Barekendan, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian, CRD / TI Armenia 2007