What Remained from Armenian Wedding?

Karen Hovhannesyan, having got married a month ago, told the “Ankakh” magazine that his wife hadn’t been virgin and he knew about it. Karen is 23: “Times have changed now.”-he says.- It is important for me that we loved and understood each other. It has already gone out of use.”

He says that his parrents took red apples to the bride’s house after the wedding to maintenain the tradition formally. “My parents even don’t know about it if she was a virgin or not. It’s a business of mine and hers. I said – Take. She was virgin, we were intimate before the wedding.”

The bride’s virginity, which as to Armenian society is considered to be the main norm of morality, is gradually becoming excluded, taking a lot of traditions of Armenian wedding.

Rafayel Nahapetyan – a professor of ethnography and archaeology of the history department of ESU – says that the demand of  preservation of virginity proceeds from Christian and, mainly religious ideology. “In pagan times there weren’t any demands, and the sister could have intimacy with her brother,- he says,- we have an example of the Armenian king Tigran 4, who married his stepsister Erato. Marrages were based on free love.”

What about wedding or other rituals in pagan period historiographers withhold. The reason, according to Nahapetyan is that Armenian chroniclers preached Christianity and didn’t write about the traditions, which diverged from Christianity. “We have fragmentary information about this period from works of Greek and other foreign historians.-says the ethnographer.- For example, Strabon has a wonderful discription of Godess Anahit, that Armenian girls from aristocrat families sacrifised their virginity at that day. For holding this ritual even noble young people from foreign countries were invited. That was characteristic of not only Armenians, but also of other countries of Mesopotamia. Our historians haven’t written anything about it.”

Marrages were held mainly out of the village, as the village people, as a rule, were connected by blood links. The Armenian Apostolic Church demands absence of relative links till the 7-th generation, while Catholics keep prohibition only till the 4-th generation. Nahapetyan says,that bfore the XX century there had been few girls, and many people turned to Church to be allowed to marry the far relatives.

According to the Christian tradition which was kept till 60-s of the XX century the wedding as celebrated 7 days and nights which was connected with 7 deities. Later the duration shortened to 3 days. The whole village took part in the wedding party. It was an overall event which promoted the growth of the social role of family.

“There wasn’t any need to invite people. Everyone regarded his moral duty to take part in the formation of a new family.” Nahapetyan says.

The wedding cerimony began on thursday evening or on Friday: pastry was puddled for gata. The pastry had to be puddled byone of the successful women having many children in the village, young girls helped her. All this was followed by songs and dances.

On Friday beast was killed, all village participated in it, and on saturday evening they went for the bride. As the girl, as a rule, was from another village, matchmakers went with fires so as to confuse the impure one. For this purpose they returned another way.

Bride and Groom had to stand so close to each other so as no one or nothing could pass between them, as it was considered to be a sign of divorce. The room very often gave her bride an apple to express his love towards her. “Sasunian grooms, for example, didn’t go for the Bride but waited for her on the roof of the house.” Nahapetyan says,- and when the matchmakers came up to the house, the groom threw apple and pomegranate under the bride’s legs.

On Monday, as a rule, was the day of “khash”.

In villages after the first night the sheet, proving virginity of the bride was hung for show and a big feast was organised.

Nowadays very few of these traditions have been kept. Weddings are organised within one evening, married couple often decide to use marrage expences for the honeymoon trip.

The ethnographer thinks that all this is the result of the influence from without, as well as the effect of modern life: “ho has time now to take part in a wedding party for 3 days,-Nahapetyan says,- let alone the organization of it. Everybody is busy and wants to finish all within a night. n villages some traditions are still in use, but in Yerevan the wedding party lasts one evening.

Some traditions have been kept,  while going out of the bride’s house the groom’s way is closed, the bride is taken from the house in a white dress and on the sleeve of the groom a handkerchiefe is tyed the red colour of which symbolises connection, and the green one – eternity.

In the wedding ceremony the mother-in-law helps the newlyweds with honey which symbolises sweet life, and lavash on their shoulders – prosperity in the famil, and breaking a plate in front of the door they kill demon. “The plate has also another meaning. The bride is brought from her father’s house and they broke the plates in front of the grooms house so that the bride came off the parents’ house”,- Nahapetyan says.

According to the facts of the site of Ministry of justice in the first half-year of 2010 4429 marrages and 742 divorces were registered in Armenia, and in 2009 in the same period – 4561 marrages and 753 divorces.