My Armenian Sandbox: The Armenian Holy See

The field trip on the 23rd was the one I was anticipating the most. I am a Religious Studies major and religion, especially early Christianity, is a major interest of mine, as is early monastic life and religious architecture. Today’s focus was almost entirely on Armenia’s rich Christian heritage. Most people don’t know that Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as their national religion in 301 CE. The Armenian Apostolic Church separated early from the Roman Church and so the Christianity practiced in Armenia is a far cry from most Christian groups we are used to in the western world; their variant of Christianity is most like Greek Orthodox Churches.

The day began with the Armenian Museum of Art and Ethnography, which was a nice museum that had great displays on Armenian textiles, costumes, foods, as well as historic and prehistoric Armenian artifacts. It’s always really cool to see artifacts in museums that were found by our professor Dr. Areshian. I can't wait to see my name next to an artifact plaque someday.

After the museum of Ethnography we went to Etchmiadzin, which is the Holy See of Armenia or the “Armenian Vatican.” The main church in Etchmiadzin is absolutely beautiful, with vibrant religious frescos, and beautiful architecture. One thing I really like about Armenian churches is the candle stands they have. They hold sand and water and when you visit the church you stick long yellow candles into it and then light the candle as a prayer. Another unique thing is there are not any masses or sermons, you simply visit the church when you please and often a priest will be there preaching or praying aloud. I also noticed at Etchmiadzin, which is also were priests are trained and where many live while studying the religion, that there is an insane number of very young men becoming priests. Not something seen in Catholicism these days. We walked around the grounds of the church and we were hoping to see the basement of the Etchmiadzin church, as archaeologist’s uncovered pagan temple ruins in the basement. However, the clergymen were not happy about our request, even though one of the members of the group was involved in the excavation, and we were not allowed to see it. They would rather that no one knows the pagan ruins exist because the site of the church, according to Christian legend, was picked divinely by God. The existance of these pagan ruins show that like many Christian sites, it was only chosen out of convenience for converting the local pagan groups.

After Etchmiadzin we headed into the nearby town for lunch, were we once again had veggies and salty basturma pizza. I am really, really craving bbq or something that’s not vegetables or salty beef jerky on sauceless pizza.

Next we visited one of the Vagharshapa churches. The story behind this is 32 virgins were killed by a King who was mad that one of them wouldnt marry him. They are now thought of as matyrs, and a church was decated to each of them. I loved this church, it was stunningly beautiful and had a large painting above the arches. The trademark of Armenian churches is the large red stone brick used on their exteriors, and the raw stone interiors with open skylights and windows without glass. The side doors of the Armenian churches are often wooden and very tiny (I have to duck when walking through, and I’m only 5’6) and extremely elaborately carved. There were some priests and elderly women sitting at the entrance of the church, and even though I was wearing a floor length dress (which I bought specifically for visiting churches and monasteries on this trip) and long sleeve shirt over it we all got plenty of disapproving stares for our attire.

Our last site to visit in the area was the Zvartnots ruins. This church (which we saw a model of in the National Museum) was once one of the grandest churches in Armenia. The Ruins were stunningly beautiful, with only elaborately carved stone columns still standing. Everyone was really quiet when we first arrived as it was so breathtaking and surreal. We walked around the site to also find where wine was once made nearby, with large pithoi still in situ.

That night everyone was exhausted, but we got together for dinner at a place in Yerevan known for their Armenian bbq and kabobs. We had lamb, chicken, and beef kabobs and they were all amazing. I have really acquired a taste for lamb, even though I never was a huge fan before. After dinner we went for a walk around Yerevan trying to find a dance club, but it was clearly the wrong night and we were never able to find a place to party. The boys got tired of walking around town and headed home, so myself and the rest of the girls decided to hit up “old faithful” our favourite outdoor lounge and hooka bar for some drinks and munchies. I was so dehydrated from the heat that I opted out of my typical Mojito and went for a non-alcoholic fresh squeezed watermelon juice. So yummy, I really want to try the fresh squeezed kiwi juice next time.