Hospitality, Art, and the Wettest Holiday in Town

Today's posts re-cap the week's events from the perspectives of Arev, Karek, and Amar

Karek 7/11/15

     When we arrived in Dilijan after a day of visiting churches and Lake Sevan, a nice man named Razmig greeted us. He said he didn’t know we were eating there so he would be embarrassed to give us what he had. But guess what he gave us? A beautiful feast! The hotel we stayed in, The Daravand, is in the middle of a forest. There is a river, but it’s hard to get to because most of the trails are completely overgrown. Our cabin was very beautiful because there was lots of art and the cabin was made out of unpainted wood. Razmig owns the hotel and made the cabin himself.

Razmig, who made everything wooden you see in this picture by hand.

 

Of course, medzmama gets right into the heart of matters with our host....

Today Armenia is hospitable.

Arev 7/11/15

            Today we went to the Cascade museum, which is literally inside the Cascade steps, which are big staircases leading up to an old Soviet monument in the middle of Yerevan. My highlight of the museum was the very first piece we saw, which was a wall piece that had three panels, each depicting a different era of Armenian history. The first was a panel of Mesrop Mashtots, (The monk that invented the Armenian Alphabet), depicted as a saint, with many various significant Armenian priests, monks, saints, etc, crowded around him. The second, and largest, was a painting of the famous battle of Vardanank, in which the famous Armenian warrior, Vartan Mamigonian, fought and died against the Persians, who were riding elephants,(My Armenian school teachers like to emphasis that fact to show that the Armenians were in fact, the literal underdogs), who wanted the Armenians to take back their Christianity. My grandfather was named after him, and Shant’s middle name is Vartan. The third, and final, panel is my personal favorite. It shows Mayr Hayastan, (Mother Armenia), in a crowd of famous Armenians, like William Saroyan and Sayat Nova. Overall, I just really liked being able to see Armenia’s basic history drawn out. As I was telling my mom, it was pretty much all the history I have been learning in Armenian school, on one museum-sized wall.

We couldn't take pictures in the museum so I snatched this off of Google

Some of the exhibits in the hallways.  This is a loop made of slate stone.

This sculpture was called "tattoo" and changed colors...

Today, Armenia is air-conditioned. (Thank God)  ;)

7/12

Amar

Today was Vardavar! It’s just a big water fight where everybody throws water.  We were walking around and towards this big statue when suddenly this group of kids started running towards us with water buckets and they just poured the water out right onto us.  Then we poured water back at them! It made me feel excited and scared.  

Everyone started out as a good sport...

 They pushed Sevan and Karek into a bumper boat water pool so the boys were soaking wet.   

The best defense, is offense

 

That's Karek through the drops...

Suddenly, this man poured a bucket of water on mama from behind.  I think she was surprised and cold. 

It's not just for kids, poor Mama!

  Medzmama didn’t get that much.  I think this is because she is older and they don’t think they should because she might get frustrated or something.  I don’t know if it’s a good idea to have this day in America because sometimes it’s really, really cold and sometimes it’s really, really hot.   The day was a little less getting wet than I thought because I thought EVERYbody would be splashing us.   The best part was when it just started and I got excited.  The worst part was getting totally soaking.  Mara had the strongest reaction to the water!  She screamed and cried.   

Despite Dzovag's pleas, teenage boys looked her right in the eye with a baby in her arms and drenched them both.  Mara's head was going to pop off!!

No one was spared...well, maybe someone was...

Today, Armenia is drenched.  

A brief history about Vartavad from Wikipedia: 

Although now a Christian tradition, Vardavar's history dates back to pagan times. The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess Astghik, who was the goddess of water, beauty, love and fertility. The festivities associated with this religious observance of Astghik were named “Vartavar” because Armenians offered her roses as a celebration (vart means "rose" in Armenian and var mean "rise"), this is why it was celebrated in the harvest time.

Vardavar is celebrated 98 days (14 weeks) after Easter. During the day of Vardavar, people from a wide array of ages are allowed to douse strangers with water. It is common to see people pouring buckets of water from balconies on unsuspecting people walking below them. The festival is very popular among children as it is one day where they can get away with pulling pranks. It is also a means of refreshment on the usually hot and dry summer days of July or late June.