EurasiaNet has just published my photo story on the Vardavar celebration as observed in Garni. From attending this event twice in the past six years I have to say that it’s more of a nationalist rather than religious event, and privately some of those attending say it has more to do with preserving and respecting the nation’s history before 301 AD than honoring the pre-Christian gods, but anyway.

Tradition, in the South Caucasus, dies hard. With the ancient July festival of Vardavar, one small group of Armenians is seeing a chance to relive Armenia’s pagan past, and affirm the country’s national identity.

Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD, thereafter destroying or converting its pagan temples. For most Armenians, this date represents the turning point for their nation, and one that would later distance it from Muslim neighbors in Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

But each year at Armenia’s only remaining pagan temple, at Garni, 32 kilometers east of Yerevan, a few hundred Armenians gather to celebrate Vardavar as an event that they consider represents Armenians’ true and original faith. The festival is perhaps the most popular of all traditional and religious events in the Armenian calendar, with youngsters and adults gleefully dumping water over hapless passers-by.

The celebration has now been absorbed into the Christian calendar, but was traditionally associated with Astghik, the Armenian goddess of water, beauty, love and fertility. The festival’s name is derived from the Armenian word for rose, “vard.” Early observers of Vardavar offered Astghik roses and sprinkled water on each other, or feasted near water in the hope that she would provide rain in time for harvest.

[…]

In the group’s events, nationalism and paganism mingle equally. “We are pagans,” said 43-year-old Zohrab Petrosian, Kakosian’s successor. “We are Armenians, but we don’t know our true religion. Simply lighting a candle in a church or wearing a cross around our necks does not make us Christian. I’ve been a member of this organization for 10 years, but as an Armenian I’ve been pagan since the day I was born.”

At the Garni Vardavar observances, one of the highest-profile attendees was Armen Avetisian, leader of the ultra-nationalist Union of Armenian Aryans, who received a three-year suspended sentence in 2005 for inciting racial hatred against Jews.

[…]

The appearance of ultra-nationalists, however, raises concern in some circles that the pagan movement could make a radical departure toward the extreme right. Armenian pagans tend to dismiss the concern, though. Many at the Garni observances said politics wasn’t a factor for them. Robert Garabedian, an ethnic Armenian astrophysicist from Germany, was baptized as a pagan at the Garni event. Speaking to EurasiaNet, Garabedian said that spending Vardavar at the temple site carried a personal rather than political significance. “I’m Zoroastrian, Christian and Buddhist, and now I want to be baptized into the same religion that my [Armenian] ancestors followed,” he said.

The hordes of children drenching pedestrians and motorists with water usually overshadow any such quests for meaning on Vardavar. Even so, Armenia’s pagans might take comfort in the fact that torrential rains unexpectedly hit Armenia at the festival’s end on July 15. As the rain poured down in the days that followed, one can only wonder if Astghik wasn’t listening after all.

The full text accompanied by photographs is here.

Garni, Kotayk Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia for EurasiaNet 2007

As mentioned in the last post, today was Vardavar — a pagan festival now absorbed into the Christian calendar. Nevertheless, Armenia’s small community of pagans observed the holiday as it probably was always meant to. Although Vardavar has become synonymous with throwing water on each other, there is much more to the tradition than that as Armenia Now explained in 2005.

Painter Lusik Aguletsi decorates the festive table with quick movements. On one edge there is a traditional Armenian Nuri doll made of dried vegetables smartened up with small pomegranates, while next to it is a khachbur and a kskrank (types of dolls resembling small trees) woven of wheat.

[…]

Vardavar has been celebrated in many parts of Armenia on the first Sunday after July 22, and in other regions 98 days after Easter. This year it is celebrated on July 3. It is considered a pagan occasion that Gregory the Illuminator transformed into the festival of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

Pagan Armenians marked the festival in honor of the Goddess Astghik, offering her flowers especially roses. The festival mainly took place in the mountains, near springs and lakes, which were regarded as particularly holy places. Offerings honored water spirits and entreated them to provide rains for the harvest and spare them from drought.

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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.

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Arinj, Kotayk Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

After hearing that Gagik Tsarukian, founder of the Prosperous Armenia party, would be attending a special event in his home village of Arinj on the outskirts of Yerevan, there was no way I couldn’t go either, and not least because despite all the controversy surrounding Armenia’s richest man, word has it that he is highly respected in the area surrounding the city of Abovian.

Indeed, according to Garo (aka Christian Garbis) from Notes from Hairenik, Arinj itself might even be considered a model village for Armenia. Of course, it’s situated pretty much on the outskirts of Yerevan, but there’s no doubt that Tsarukian’s businesses and assistance has something to do with it. Garo and a mutual friend, Hamlet, set off this afternoon to take a look.

We missed Tsarukian who apparently turned up in the morning, but the day was interesting nonetheless. As Garo explains in his latest post, not only was the village quite unlike many others in Armenia, but the event was notable in itself — if only for plumes of smoke eminating from the fire of hundreds of candles lit by those converging on an old church.

Today was the “village day” for Arinj, in other words a holiday, during which hundreds of people—perhaps thousands as they were coming from all around the vicinity—migrate to the site of an ancient monastery perched on hill. All that remains is a tiny chapel, but nearly all the visitors managed to cram into it—not all at once but in a remarkably orderly fashion, filing in and out without shoving, cutting in line or whatever else. Those that could not manage to enter to light candles instead lit them in two large rectangular votives just outside. But for some reason people had given up lighting the individually and inserting them into the sand. Instead the simply threw the candles on top of this uncontrollable fire that burned from the melted liquid wax. I never saw anything like that before—it just shows that Armenians cannot ever let completely go of their fire-worshipping roots. […] Alongside the road leading up to the chapel were vendors selling toy guns, lollipops, sunflower seeds, popcorn, plastic jewelry and all sorts of other things. Oh, and candles, I almost forgot to mention. Every vendor there was selling candles, I swear.

[…]

Arinj must be one of the cleanest villages that I have ever visited in Armenia. It is rare to find any litter on the sidewalks or gutters. And in the late spring there are perennial flowers planted alongside the curbs—even grass grows in certain spots. I would dare think the fact that the small town’s golden boy lives there is the primary reason why the town looks so nice. There are even young trees planted throughout, especially around the vicinity of the chapel, which also serves as a public park it looked to me.

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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.

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Zarchka has an interesting post on love, sex and marriage over at Life Around Me. So interesting was it that the forum page which resulted in Zara posting has since been taken down. So much for open discussion, but one thing’s for sure, her post had an impact and if discussion was censored and actually stopped on a site established to promote free debate, it’s continuing on her blog.

Comments have been disabled for this post, so if you want to say something on it, please do so over there.

New Year, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2004

Now that the New Year has been and gone perhaps it’s time to look at how the Armenian Blogosphere spent the festive season. Unfortunately, most bloggers, including myself, didn’t bother to write much at all, and most didn’t even do that. Full marks, therefore, to Nareg over at Cilicia.com’s Life in Armenia who provided us with a very educational post on how New Year is celebrated in Armenia.

Ahh, new year’s in Armenia… It seems I’m one of the few loggers to still be in the Homeland to ring in 2007. You know, it seems odd, if you think about it, celebrating a “new year” in the dead of winter, that too, in the middle of the night. I’d imagine a nice spring dawn would be more appropriate. Anyway, this is the way it is now, and I suppose it enlivens what would otherwise be a dreary season. At least for the Northern Hemisphere…

Hayastantsis are very much into the night of the 31st of the December, as well as the morning of the 1st of January, followed quickly by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th… There’s plenty of eating and drinking, followed by more eating and drinking at someone else’s place, with a third banquet within the same day not uncommon. Things don’t quiet down until about the 14th or 15th, I’d say. See, we have the 6th of January - Armenian Christmas - and “old” “new” “year” on the 13th. Don’t ask me to explain that one, but there are various theories.

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Artur, New Year’s Day, Specialized Children’s Home, Kharberd, Ararat Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2002

Via Tirami Su, Mikael Kazaryan of mkdotam and photoblog.am has a post about festivities recently held at the Specialized Children’s Home in Nor Kharberd on the outskirts of Yerevan. The post is in Russian, perhaps the lingua franca for local bloggers and forum participants in Armenia, but it’s probably about time to have some cyrillic on my site even if I have to feed it into an online translation service to understand.

о Харбердском детдомe // отчет

Дорогие друзья, в это воскресение, как и было сказано, кукольный театр поехал в Харбердский дет.дом, в котором проживают дети с умственными отклонениями. Сразу же должен сказать, что дет.дом оставил на меня очень светлое впечатление. В помещениях было светло, тепло и уютно. Детишки были нормально одеты, умыты и вообще чувствовалось, что за ними ухаживают, о них заботятся и любят. Кукольный театр отыграл “Три поросенка”, после представления Дед Мороз и Снегурочка пообщались с детьми: дети почитали стихи, попели песни, потанцевали, потом Дед Мороз загадывал загадки, а Снегурочка подсказывала отгадки, потому что вопросы были не по зубам даже взрослым. Не знаю какие грибы ел Дед Мороз когда придумывал эти загадки. В конце Дед Мороз и Снегурочка раздали ребяткам по пакетику “Снеговик” из Гранд Кенди и укатили в свой кукАльный театр. После чего мы (я, Андрон, Лекс, и Нелли (журн.из Аравота с которой все и началось)) пообщались с Ирой, которая уже 6 лет работает в Харбердском дет.доме и сейчас является старшей воспитательницей. В результате общения было в частности узнано, что в Харбердском дет.доме находится около 250 детей. На представлении было около 100 это обусловленно тем, что часть детей является лежачими больными и часть детей находится в таком состоянии, что они бы ни поняли ничего из происходящего (как эти множества пересекаются я не знаю). Было отмечено также, что подобные представления и прочие довольно частое явление, особенно под Новый Год и 1 июня (день защиты детей). Какой-то факультет филармонии каждый год приезжает туда с представлениями. Часто детей вывозят в город на представления в разные театры. Так же есть какие-то спонсоры, которые оплачивают вывоз детей на Севан летом. За это лето 70 детей отдохнули на Севане.

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Well, we’re used to stupid and illogical things happening here in Armenia, but it has to be said that that this time round we’ve probably outdone ourselves. After the falsified referendum to amend the Constitution last year, Armenia has to adopt a new national anthem by 6 December. Right, that’s today and, right again, no it hasn’t. Why the proposed change? Well, for one, Wikipedia says the current anthem is too “wimpy.”

“Mer Hayrenik” (Armenian script: “Մեր Հայրենիք”; English translation: “Our Fatherland”) is the national anthem of Armenia. Adopted on July 1, 1991, it is based on the anthem of the Democratic Republic of Armenia (1918-1922), but with different lyrics.

The lyrics were written as a poem by poet Mikael Nalbandian (1829-1866) and later set to music by composer Barsegh Kanachyan (1885-1967).

[…]

Lately, there has been a debate over whether Armenia should ditch its current national anthem and adopt something more modern, more attuned to today’s national aspirations. There have been complaints that the song is too wimpy and gloomy.).

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Kanayq Hayots, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

As I recently posted, an albeit small action to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as well as raise awareness of the arguably regressing role of women in peace-building and society in general in the South Caucasus, was staged yesterday. The demonstration, largely attended by female university students as well as several ethnic Armenians from the Diaspora, was organized by the Kanayq Hayots NGO.

Kanayq Hayots Women’s Center was established on July 1, 2003 by a group of undergraduate women from the Sociology Department of Yerevan State University (YSU), Armenia. The idea was also strongly supported by graduate assistant and Ph.D. candidate, Gohar Shahnazaryan, as well as master’s students Anna Malkhassyan and Gohar Hovhanisyan. The Center’s concept was initiated by Lara Aharonian from the “Centre des Femmes d’ici et d’ailleurs de Montreal Quebec”, Canada, and Shushan Avagyan, a graduate student at Illinois State University, USA. Having made a commitment to YSU’s Sociology department, Kanayq Hayots is located at the University’s Conflict Resolution Information Center, but acts as an independent entity.

The Center adopted its name from the existing socio-literary feminist journal that started publishing in 2000 through YSU’s Sociology Department. One of main reasons of Kanayq Hayots’ establishment was to preserve and revive the publication of this journal, which had ceased circulating in 2002 due to a lack of steady financial support. The Center reunites the journal’s editorial and volunteer staff, and now opens its doors to a larger network of women from other institutions and disciplines.

[…] Our objective is to eliminate all types of discrimination against women whatever their age, race, class, nationality, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. More specifically, our goal is to create a safe environment for every woman on the campuses of YSU.

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Christine Allison with Amarik Sardar, Ortachiya, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

The Armenian News Network — Groong has added some more interviews to those conducted as part of research into the Yezidi minority in Armenia on a special page listing all the background research undertaken on this subject since 1998. This time round it’s the turn of some academics conducting fieldwork into the Republic’s largest minority.

Although most of them have appeared on this blog here, here, and here, there’s a new interview with Dr. Christine Allison from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris.

OK: What has been your experience regarding the division of the Yezidi regarding Kurdish and non-Kurdish identity. Have you encountered it and in your opinion, to what extent does it appear to be evident?

CA: I have met more people on the ‘Kurdish’ side and when I first came across this several years ago I thought it was a ‘little local difficulty’ knowing how the Yezidi identity in Iraq has been variously officially defined as ‘Arab’ under the Ba’athists in the 1970s, then ‘Kurdish’ under the Kurds, and according to Ocalan, they were Zoroastrians, I could see the whole issue was a political football and the Yezidis, as a colourful folkloric sort of group were exploited in good Orientalist fashion by everybody.

What I can say as an outsider is that with the exception of two villages in Iraq they speak Kurmanji Kurdish, their verbal and material culture is typical of Kurdistan and indeed pretty much identical with non-Yezidi Kurds, and their religion is not found among people who consider themselves to be Arabs, Turks, Persians or Armenians. Those are the facts. Identity of course, is not about objective facts, but is more complicated and variable, and what seems to be important is that people define their identity freely for themselves.

However, I am not at all sure that this is the case in Armenia. For example, nobody seems able to tell me how the famous census was carried out. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors in Armenia, such as people on different sides often don’t speak to each other, but it was in the community in Russia that I really began to understand how noxious this whole question is in the Yezidi community. There are many stories about intimidation of people who refused to say they weren’t Kurds, for instance.

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