Vardavar, la Trasfigurazione dell'Armenia

One of the most important festivals in Armenian Christianity recalls in its name the ancient custom of washing oneself with rosewater. This is why - in the hottest time of the year - everyone is allowed the playful gesture of bathing each other that children eagerly await. A gesture of purification, feeling part of a single family, a sentiment yearned for in this time of great conflict in the country.

Yerevan (AsiaNews) - The people of Armenia celebrated one of the most popular feasts on Sunday, July 7, the feast of Vardavar, the solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord according to the calendar of the Apostolic Church. The feast marks the hottest time in these latitudes and extends throughout the following octave, also taking on a significance of social reunification and patriotic pride these days, especially since the national Church has taken on an explicit political role in opposition to the government, under the leadership of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and the blessing of the katholikos Karekin II.

Two weeks after Easter, Vardavar is considered one of the main feasts of the Monophysite Christians in the Armenian tradition, along with Christmas, Baptism, the Resurrection of Jesus, the Assumption (Dormition) of the Mother of God, and the Exaltation of the Lord's life-giving Cross. The Armenian Church separated from the Byzantine and Roman Churches at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and retains very ancient liturgical traditions for this reason as well, having inspired the first Christian reign some ten years before Constantine's conversion.

The title of Vardavar goes back to the root Vard, the 'rose' in Armenian, bringing back to Christian rituals the ancient custom of washing oneself with rose water, which dates back to the cult of the goddess of love and beauty Astkhik, to whom the fire god Vaagn addressed his passion, and who sprinkled rose water over all the Armenian lands to make love bloom. This practice is christianly attributed to Christ's ascent of Mount Tabor together with the apostles Peter, James and John, being transfigured before them when 'his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as the light', according to the account in the synoptic gospels.

In public celebrations, everyone is allowed without restriction to sprinkle water on each other, a playful gesture that children eagerly await, and that adults indulge in by becoming children themselves. In addition to the water, the Vardavar also includes the release of doves into the air, to signify the end of the universal Flood and the salvation of Noah's family on the Armenian mountain of Ararat, now in Turkish territory. Clothes and hair on this day are adorned with flowers, to transfigure themselves in the light of faith and tradition.

Armenians walk around with buckets, jugs, bottles, glasses and water pistols, spraying every passer-by as a fraternal greeting, without anyone being offended, because water on this day is considered purifying and healing, and allows one to feel part of a single family, a feeling much yearned for in these times of great conflicts and divisions among the people. Also the food of this week is the sacred Matakh, the 'sacrifice of mercy' to whose banquet the poorest and suffering are invited, an open-air charity meal to which everyone joins in barbecuing lamb and poultry. Dessert consists of apples cooked over the fire with various ingredients, the traditional Armenian Nazuk dessert.

Even the weather these days joins the traditions, with the first real summer heat alternating with heavy blessing rains, all according to authentic inspirations. The shared feast emphasises even more clearly the true content of the confrontation between the different souls of Armenia, such as between the Church and the government; Prime Minister Nikol Pašinyan often repeats that a modern Armenia must be built and adapted to the challenges of the present, while Katholikos Karekin II calls for respect for history and traditions, so as not to hand over the sacred land to the enemies of the faith and the Armenian people.