Barekendan: Armenians Mark Shrovetide Festival Before Lent

Sara Khojoyan ArmeniaNow reporter

The Armenian Apostolic Church observance of Lent began at 6 p.m. Sunday, signaling 49 days of fasting and pious living for the faithful who will celebrate Easter on March 23. Fr. Karapet who served a liturgy at Yerevan’s Surb Zoravor church on Sunday morning explained the symbolism of Lent to the faithful who gathered in the church. “The Lent is not only about rejecting food, but a period of tolerance, thinking about sins committed, repenting, forgiving people. We must be more restrained and communicate more with God,” Fr. Karapet said. Shrovetide, a traditional church and national festival, embraced Yerevan with joyful events on Sunday to usher in the Lent. Grandfather Fast and Grandmother Utis came to Yerevan from a remote village. The name of the grandfather symbolizes the period of fasting and the grandmother is named Utis, because she, according to a tradition, is a glutton and symbolizes Shrovetide. “Today, during Shrovetide, people enjoy themselves, say anything they want to each other, forgive each other, it’s a tradition that comes from old times,” Grandfather Fast explains the day’s meaning. After listening to the liturgy at Surb Zoravor Church Grandmother Utis and Grandfather Fast, accompanied by more than 30 little Shrovetide people in festive dresses, reciting “It’s Shrovetide days, we all go mad”, singing and distributing rice and boiled eggs to passers-by, walked towards the Tumanyan museum. At the museum, which was the organizer of the event, they staged performances symbolizing the festival, sang songs and danced. Members of the “Sksel a” (“It Has Started”) youth initiative group staged Shrovetide celebrations in an area near the monument to Komitas in Yerevan, turning the place into a gleeful square for hundreds of passers-by. Children dancing at the Vaspurik puppet theater together with theater head Anna Sargsyan participated in the “Sksel a” event. “People eat rice and butter on Shrovetide,” says 13-year-old Shushanik Sargsyan, remembering Hovhannes Tumanyan’s Barekendan (Shrovetide) tale and all children repeat – yes, rice. Ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan, who participated in two events, is glad that Shrovetide returns to life. “In ancient times it was celebrated for two weeks. It was a festival that gave an opportunity to revise the heavy norms not accepted by all that existed in society, to live free.” “If a boy-girl relationship was banned, it was allowed on Barekendan. If in everyday life a person was to be restrained, on Barekendan he was to be extravagant, dancing at feasts day and night, practice gluttony,” Kharatyan said.