«I know not why, O my fragile heart,
Today with longing you wish to hear
Such an old and forgotten song,
With which my mother sang me lullabies»… (SARMEN)
«I know not why, O my fragile heart,
Today with longing you wish to hear
Such an old and forgotten song,
With which my mother sang me lullabies»… (SARMEN)
Since the most ancient times the sages remind us that losses are not only material.
Worse are the losses of the value system, the cultural losses — clear and pure thought, good wishes, virtuous conduct…
And they counsel to remain always attentive to conscience and to sound reason — observing, examining one’s own self and the people around, the phenomena…
Opposing to the striving for wealth and glory the preference for an unadorned life and good conduct, they emphasized the vanity of transient life.
The hut of the Roman philosopher Epictetus had neither door nor lock; a wooden bench, a mat and a clay lamp were all the furniture of his house.
He was guided by the principle according to which, instead of adorning the house in order to astonish others, the wise man beautifies, ennobles his mind and inner world — arming himself with high moral ideas.
Faithful to the precepts of the Ancestors — the Haykazuns have been educated for millennia with the exhortation to strive through self-perfection towards the sublime and the noble.
The echoes of the value system built by the Armenian Forefathers are at the basis of numerous joyful national feasts, rites preserved to this day, which are a peculiar hymn to the continuation of Life, to the glorification of the life-giving Sun and Earth…
When removing the «mist» imposed by the centuries, they illuminate our mind and consciousness — with their original charm.
Realizing the importance of preserving national thinking, national culture — numerous Armenian researchers fixed their attention on the problem of preserving the heritage handed down through the centuries.
«Wishing to save from final loss the materials relating to Armenian ethnography, I feared lest many rites and customs escape my eye, which, though insignificant, imperceptible, are nevertheless indispensable for studies: Therefore I decided to choose as my guide Herbert Spencer’s study «Institutions cérémonielles», so far unequalled, I prepared a detailed programme — with questions, and for this purpose travelled to Alexandrapol, Kars, Kaghzvan, Old Nakhijevan, Yerevan, Vagharshapat and collected sufficient material, which I completed with my materials already collected while travelling in Vaspurakan and in the provinces of Transcaucasia: To this personal collection of mine I added the scattered materials existing in Armenian ethnography and in old Armenian literature and composed the present work»,- writes Yervand Lalayan in the preface of the work «Ritual customs among the Armenians» and continues: «…Since time for carrying out studies will never be lacking, whereas if we remain indifferent for another quarter of a century to collecting Armenian materials — very many materials will disappear altogether, therefore my immediate aim is not to give a study, but in the light of European scholarship to search for, find and save from loss Armenian materials»…
Some episodes from Yervand Lalayan’s above-mentioned study — in the next ones…
