One of the more
interesting holidays I’ve had to experience while living in Armenia is
something called Terendez. It’s a
religious holiday that dates back to Armenia’s pagan times and is held 40 days
after the birth of Christ. The ceremony
involves lighting a bonfire with the fire representing purification, the coming
of Spring, better climate, fertility, and the blessing of newlyweds.
The celebration
can be held privately in front of people’s homes or on holy grounds of the
church. I just happened to know that the
Armenian Apostolic Church in my city of Gyumri was going to have a large
ceremony in the center of town. Luckily
for me, that I am assigned to an organization that is financed by the local
diocese so I got a heads up of the time it would occur from my colleagues. I arrived a little early to the ceremony and
saw my colleagues setting up the bonfire.
There were many children also performing traditional Armenian dances
around the bonfire.
Moments later
the Bishop with the other priests and deacons arrived to perform the religious
ceremony. The Bishop and priests spoke
for about 20 minutes and moved around the ceremony to speak in every direction.
While they were performing the ritual I noticed that people were placing items
on the bonfire to be blessed by the priests and then burnt. I also noticed that many of the faithful were
holding unlit candles too. After the
Bishop and priests had said their words the Bishop lit the torch. The interesting thing to observe here is that
one of the priests was holding a special candle lantern. This candle lantern was delivered earlier in
the day from the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the headquarters of the
Armenian Apostolic Church worldwide.
It’s the Vatican equivalent. The
blessed flame was then used to light the bonfire. Since I was in the front row taking pictures
I could feel the heat instantly when it was lit since fuel was used to
accelerate the burning.
After a few
minutes when the heat and fire began to subside the faithful then began to
light their candles with the blessed flame.
If you notice closely on some of the pictures, the faithful have cut
plastic bottles over their candles and that’s designed to prevent the wind from
blowing it out when they are walking home.
The faithful then light other candles in their home with the blessed
flame. Afterwards, many of the children
began to perform their traditional Armenian dancing around the bonfire.
The custom is
once the flames settle down to a reasonable level a newlywed couple will jump
over the flames three times and symbolically purify themselves. Brides will often intentionally try to leave
a burn mark on her wedding gown as evidence of participating in Terendez. I also observed some of the faithful taking
ashes from the bonfire. The faithful
believe that if you are in poor health or trying to become pregnant you need
only to put some of the blessed ashes in your drink and you will be healed or
become pregnant! Sometimes the blessed
ash is also spread out over the fields or placed inside the ovens (called tonir
in Armenian) used to make lavash (Armenian flat bread). Children will also jump over the flames after
the newlyweds.
There were no
newlywed couples in the crowd that day so I didn’t get a chance to photograph
it. Since it was really cold that day I
didn’t stick around to photograph the children jumping over the flames because
they were too busy dancing. The next day
however I did photograph the children from the kindergarten at my organization
jump over the flames. The children were
introduced to the history of Terendez and finished by getting a chance to jump
over the flames with the help of the teacher and volunteers.
Overall, it was
quite an interesting ceremony to witness.
If you happen to be visiting in Armenia in February make sure you mark
your calendar to witness this piece of culture.
It can be see informally in front of people’s homes or done formally by
any of the Apostolic Churches in Armenia.
Happy
Traveling.
