brought to you by SAIN St. Andrew Information Network c. 1987, Fr.
Vazken Movsesian

ARMENIAN CULTURE 9 October 1987

Address to the Knights of Vartan San Francisco, California

Fr. Vazken Movsesian

     Appreciation, thanks & intro:     I would like to thank you
for inviting me this evening to share with you, some ideas on
Armenian Culture.  I know we're competing against the Giants game
today-- I guess you didn't have enough confidence in the Giants
that they'de make it to the playoffs.

     It may seem strange to an outsider as to why a priest, a
religious leader would be addressing the issue of Armenian culture.
 As we know,  October has been designated as Armenian Cultural
Month by H.H. Karekin I, when he was the primate of American
Diocese.  As a clergyman he declared it so, because of the close
tie of Armenian culture and the Church.  During October the
Armenian Church remembers the Holy Translators.  Because of their
work in the Church, we Armenians have a culture today.  Because of
the needs of the Church, basically to translate the Bible, the
Armenian alphabet was created.  The Armenian alphabet was created
for the Church and Armenian Culture is a product of the creation of
that alphabet!
      Tonight I am here to speak about Armenian culture.  When
asked to formulate a definition of culture, Armenian Culture, I
have to ask, do we, as Armenians, have a uniform culture?  In other
words, can we say that a certain set of standards or
characteristics belongs to us and is therefore Armenian culture?
     As an Armenian priest, I have a very unique opportunity to
participate in the lives and lifestyles of our people.  In that
participation, naturally, I also observe.  One thing becomes
obvious, quickly, that our Armenian people have various customs
depending upon the areas or countries they come from.  It is very
difficult to put your finger on a certain thing and say, "this is
Armenian Culture."
     Let us take one very important part of our culture, food.  I
do not mean to be facicious by speaking about something as shallow
as food, but food is very much a part of our identity.  It
identifies us.  Fortunately or unfortunately, how many
non-Armenians identify the entire Armenian people by their food.
We have heard the familiar words, "Oh yes, Armenian!  You're the
people with the fantastic food bazaars!"  Today, luckily, we have a
governor who we can also point to and say, "besides our food, the
Governor is Armenian too!"
     But allow me to center on our food and/or eating traditions
for a moment as a microcosm for Armenian Culture.  Our food, as you
all know is not of a uniform style that we may say "Yes, this is
Armenian."  For instance, the most common element of an Armenian
meal: Pilav.  As American born Armenians we are well aquainted with
the pilav as it is made with vermaselli, chicken broth, butter and
so on.  Yet this is not the case for Armenians coming from Iran or
Armenians or Armenia.
     The Armenians from Iran, for instance, might prepare their
pilaf in the form of a cake. Another familiar way is to first brown
either bread or potatoes at the bottom of the pan, like a crust and
then cook the pilaf--just plain rice-- on top of it.
     I remember a few years back when we came to the Santa Clara
parish, Yeretzgin & I were invited to dinner at the home of a
parishioner from Iran.  They prepared this pilav as I discribe with
a burnt bottom.  We both thought, "Poor people, they burned the
pilav but they had to serve it anyway!"  Didn't realize this was
their customary pilav until the second chance we had to go to an
Iranian Armenian home and have pilav prepared the same way.
     After being around Armenians from various parts of the world,
Armenia, Iran, Beirut, Turkey, America, or wherever, it becomes
clear, and quite naturally, that many parts of our Armenian culture
have been adopted from our host countries.  A fine example would be
the dinner table we sit at with Armenians from Armenia.  Those of
you here who have been to Armenia know what I am talking about--
vodka is almost always present on the dinner table.  The use of
vodka to augment a meal is very common for Armenians from Armenia.
Is this a part of Armenian culture?  Obviously it is a custom that
they have adopted from the Russians.  Just as many of our cultural
patters are customs which we have adopted from years of living here
in the United States.
       Therefore, what is really true Armenian culture?  Do we have
a collective Armenian culture, or are we parasytes, with no real
culture, merely taking from here and there?  Let us begin with a
definition of the word "culture" itself.  Cultural anthropologists
give us a starting point: Culture is the "categories, plans, and
rules people employ to interpret their world and act purposefully
within it."    Culture is learned as children grow up in society
and discover how their parents, and others around them, interpret
the world. During socialization the child learns his culture, and
because he learns it from others, he shares it with others, a fact
that makes human social existence possible. Culture thus becomes
the meaning system by which people design their own actions and
interpret the behavior of others.  It tells an American that eating
with one's mouth closed is proper, while an Indian knows that to be
polite he must eat with his mouth open.  There is nothing
pre-ordained about cultural categories; they are arbitrary.
(Cnflt/cnfmty p.2-3)

     We may then say, Armenian culture is the meaning system by
which we identify ourselves as "Armenian."  We may be called
Armenian because our actions and behaviour is in accordanced with
the laws, plans and rules of what we call Armenian Culture.   What
Catholicos Karekin I intended when he established October as
Armenian Cultural month, was for us, as Armenians away from our
homeland, (where we are not in day-to-day contact with our culture)
to keep in touch with the those rules and common laws, those
patterns of existence established by our people--to make our
actions and behavior here dependent upon those traditions that are
Armenian.

     Our history dates back 3000 years.  We have 3000 years to
contend with when dealing with a collective culture, or an identity
as a people.  We are familiar with our rich heritage during the
pre-Christian era but for all intents and purposes, our culture
today is centered around our Armenian Christian traditions since
the time of the Apostles.  Look at the Saints that we venerate in
our Church.  They are the symbols of the collective culture we
charish, the past we respect and try to emulate.
     In fact, this organization, the Knights and Daughters of
Vartan is based upon the greatest of those saints.  St. Vartan was
the defender of our faith, the brave warrior who went against the
odds, and proponent of Christianity.  We, our children, have been
bombarded with this news from an early age. {The fist poem we teach
our children: Hye em yes, Kach Vartaneen torn em yes.}
Christianity and its defense has been ingrained within our people.
But more so is the idea of fighting for the right, no matter what
the odds may be, no matter how unpopular the right may be.
     Our people have been a creative people. Creativity is a part
of our culture.  Dispite the pressures put upon us by unfriendly
governments, dispite the hardships we have had to endure, we have
created.  Except for a couple of years earlier this century,
Armenians have lived under the rule of other people/governments for
centuries.  Yet, where they have distroyed, or tried to distroy we
have built.  Sts. Nerses Shnorhali, Krikor Naregatzi are examples
of creativity to the final degree.
     Finally we may say that the pain and suffering that our people
went through at the turn of this century, plays a very major part
in formulating a collective Armenian culture.  The mere fact that
we are constantly reminded of how it was to be without, makes at
least that generation, appreciative of the little things in life.
To say Armenians a generation or two before us were appreciative
and thankful, is also characteristic of our culture.
     However, looking to
 our past does not always answer our quest for a collective
Armenian culture for in fact we do live in the present.  This is
very important to bear in mind.  We cannot always look to the past
to find our culture.  We are creating our culture, we are writing
our history today, now!  {Many times when I am confronted with the
problem of motivating youth in church life, as I am sure you as an
organization have also confronted this problem, we say, the youth
are the future of our church or people.  This is an incorrect
statement.  It does not identify them today!  What are they today?
Merely a reflection?  Merely an image of what is to be?  Ghosts?
Certainly not!  Youth are today!  Not the future!  Today!}  We may
apply this thought to our Armenian situation as well.  We as
Armenians are a living people.  We are the today.  Our culture is
being formed and shaped today, just as it has been for the past
3000.  Looking back into history is fine, but today is equally
important.  What cultural norms are we gathering from the
environment we find ourselves in today?
     We may say Armenian culture is creative.  Armenian Culture is
the foundation of our individual creativity and it is constantly
being created.  It is lawful. It is full of the Christian moral
principals from which we pattern our lives and behavior.
     America, for the most part, has created a safe and productive
environment for us today.  Affluence is a part of our cultural
system here.  America has been conducive to the Armenian creative
spirit, and we have gained and prospered from it.  However, along
with that affluence came it's side effects: complacency,
narcissism, apathy.  These came and come about when that Armenian
creative spirit realizes that there are profits to be made for the
self as well.  These too become part of our Armenian culture here
in America.  And sadly, we are finding in reality that the self is
greater than the collective we, the us.
     I am always amazed when I speak with those who have survived
the massacres.  Their stories are unique, not only for their
content and the particular routes they took, but because you rarely
find such perseverance, creativity and the will to survive within
any people.  For the vast majority of us here tonight, our lives
are a result of these survivalists.  They saw  not only their own
lives and dreams shattered, but the lives of their families, their
kinsmen, their countrymen distroyed and beaten.  At ages of 5, 10,
15, 20 they picked up.  They did not give up. They did not escape.
They started anew, in new countries, without knowing the language.
Our parents, grandparents took on the system and won!  Perhaps
because of that struggle, it gave them a reason to survive.  That
survivalist attitude is the foundation our Armenian Culture.
     When we become comfortable, when we lose sight of the
struggle, the fight, the rebellion, then we are content.  At the
point of contentment, I feel, we have lost the battle for the
preservation of Armenian culture.   Unfortunately, these feelings
have creeped into our cultural system.
     We as Armenians are content with our present situation.  We
are comfortable with the fact that we have this many churches, that
many schools and so on.  We are content with our homeland, Armenia.
 Sure we may disagree with the ideology of the Soviet state, but we
reassure ourselves by saying that no Armenian been discriminated or
lost his life because he is Armenian for the past 70 years.  But we
miss the point.  We are preserving Armenian Culture not for the
sake of it in itself.  We are not preserving the culture because
its pretty, unique or nice.  We preserve the Armenian Culture
because it is our one and only tie with the homeland and with other
Armenians.  It unifies us with our countrymen, and ultimately, we
preserve it because we have the hopes that one day we will return
to a land where this culture will freely by expressed, as the only
culture.
     When we speak of an Armenian Cultural month, we are speaking
about how to draw on our past, realizing the present situation we
find ourselves in, and setting the rules and road to the future.
     Part of our present culture here is to admit that we are
within the so called melting pot of America.  Yet sometimes
Armenians believe this to be a negative experience without really
analizing the opportunity this affords us.  We are a creative
people.  What have we done for the world?  We can count the number
of accomplishments Armenians have.  But how much of that has been
motivated by altruistic intentions?  Our culture has to be a two
way street.  We must be able to draw from and at the same time
return to our host countries.  Our Armenian projects, our Armenian
experiences for the most part center around our own community.
What are we giving back to America, to that melting pot.  It
interested me to read in the Armenian newspapers coming from the
Los Angeles Area about the earthquake last week.  The reports
stated that no Armenians were hurt.  That Armenian institutions
remained in tacked.  Is this the end of the report?  Are we that
ethnocentric that we refuse to hear or learn of others that inhabit
this planet.
     We cry and ask why doesn't the world recognize us, why isn't
the world listening to our plea?  We should ask why should they?
We have to earn the right to be heard.  Having a governor who is
Armenian does not solve the situation.  We as a collective group
--calling on our own traditions and creativity-- must be willing to
give back to this country or any other country we call home.
Armenian culture evolves from a rich history.  It has much to offer
not only us, but to the world as well.  It must be kept alive and
the solution to that is within our reach.  We cannot stand idly by.
 We must create not only for our selves but for the world as well.
     We can go on and on about Armenian culture and its place in
our lives.  It gives us an identity.  It is the force that
motivates our actions.  It is the past, the present and the future.
 It must become a part of our lives everyday.  It must be in prime
form so that it is accessable to/by our children.  I hope that I
have been able to express some of my ideas and my thoughts.  I
thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to be with you and
sharing these ideas.

c. 1987, Fr. Vazken Movsesian