Vardavar, Garni, Kotayk Region
Garni, Kotayk Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
The Armenian Apostolic Church might like to think of it as a Christian festival, but its origin is very definitely pagan. For almost every child in Armenia, however, today’s celebration of Vardavar meant only one thing — throwing water over complete strangers and getting away with it. As for myself, it also meant an opportunity to again attend the traditional celebration of the festival by pagan Armenians at the Garni temple. I’ve been in the past, but a good few years have passed since then.
Anyway, today was notable for a number of reasons. Firstly, I told Garo (aka Christian Garbis) at Notes from Hairenik about the event so he attended for the first time, and secondly, because EurasiaNet said they’d be interested in a photo story. Also in attendance was Armen Avetisyan, the controversial head of the Union of Armenian Aryans, but more on that later. For now, a few photos from today until the rest are ready.
Previous posts on Vardavar from 2005 and 2006 are here and here, with older photographs here and here. I’ve just discovered a poem about Vardavar on Groong which is probably worth reproducing.
VARDAVAR
By Shushan Avagyan
What started with rose petals
sprinkled in abundance
onto joyful crowds
of Armenian ancestry, centuries ago,
in celebration of a saint -now, on a hot July afternoon,
spread across the turbulent streets of Yerevan,
metamorphosing into a wild pagan ritual
of water, turned into
a mystical ingredient,
purified and hidden in tin carafes -
waiting in the hands of stealthy adolescents
for random
startled passers by.Yerevan
July 7, 2002
Anyway more photos to come, and incidentally, while I always knew my F5 was environmentally sealed, I’m pleased to report that so too is my D200. I didn’t want to have to put its seals to the test, but with so much water flying around today there was no avoiding doing so.
Garni, Kotayk Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007
So much fun! I miss Vardavar so much.
Comment by Blogian — July 16, 2007 @ 5:44 am
Can’t you introduce it to wherever you are? I can’t ever remember anything like this from London-Armenian Community, but why not in controlled circumstances i.e. any non-Armenian that comes knows they’re likely to get soaked. Or, of course, you could just practice your right to your own ethnic identity and soak random people on the streets wherever you are and see if you can’t get away with it.
Comment by Onnik — July 16, 2007 @ 11:29 am
Parskahay in the house:
http://artinarakelian.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post.html
Comment by Armen Filadelfiatsi — July 20, 2007 @ 6:36 am