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Duduk and Its Music

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The duduk, the Armenian oboe, is a double-reed wind instrument characterized by a warm, soft, slightly nasal timbre. It belongs to the category of aerophones, which also includes the balaban played in Azerbaijan and Iran, the duduki common in Georgia and the ney in Turkey.The soft wood of the apricot tree is the ideal material for the body of the instrument. The reed, called ghamish or yegheg, is a local plant growing alongside the Arax River.
The roots of Armenian duduk music go back to the times of the Armenian king Tigran the Great (95-55 BC). It accompanies popular Armenian traditional songs and dances of the various regions and is played at events, such as weddings and funerals. Although there are also famous duduk soloists, among them Gevorg Dabaghyan and Vache Sharafyan, the duduk is usually played by two musicians. One player creates the musical environment for the lead melody by playing a continual drone held by circular breathing, while the other player develops complex melodies and improvisations. There are four major types of duduk, varying in length from 28 to 40 cm. This variety allows the sound of the duduk to express various moods depending on the content of the piece and the playing context. The 40-cm long duduk, for example, is regarded as most appropriate for love songs, whereas the smaller one usually accompanies dances. Today, duduk craftsmen continue to create and experiment with different forms of duduks. Many Armenians consider the duduk as the instrument that most eloquently expresses warmth, joy and their history.
Over the last few decades, the popularity of Armenian duduk music has faded, in particular in the rural areas where it originated. The duduk instrument is played less and less in popular festivities, but more often as a staged performance by professionals, risking to threaten the music’s viability and traditional character.

Assyrian-New-Year-Celebration

Assyrian New Year Celebration

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The Assyrians, having lost their statehood 2,500 years ago, survived thanks to oral speech and ethnic culture. Evidence of this is the New Year celebration that Assyrians around the world celebrate on April 1st. It’s called “khab nisan”. According to the legend, from the happiness of the beautiful love of Tammuz and Ishtar, everything on the face of the earth blossoms and brightens. On the 5th day of the holiday, the participants of the celebration bring the cart-ship, after which the holiday is still called Carnival. It marks the end of the old year and the beginning of the new.
The celebration ends with their wedding on April 1, which coincides with the Assyrian New Year. It marks the end of the old year and the beginning of the new.
The Assyrians celebrate that celebration with a communal sacrifice, which is distributed to all families equally, and, which is the most important protocol. Then the celebration continues with song and dance. The “Sheikhana” dance, to which the whole nation participates, can last up to two hours.
Every Assyrian considers it his duty to be at his birthplace, to celebrate that day, to participate in community events, which are diverse: concerts, parties, visits to relatives’ graves.
Such festivals also contribute to the preservation of the Assyrian language and to the appreciation of customs in society.

Yezidi-Wedding-Ritual

Yezidi Wedding Ritual

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The Yezidi people are one of the oldest nations in the world with unique traditions and customs. The Yezidi wedding ceremony is one of them. The Yezidi wedding ritual is traditional and has been preserved to this day. It includes regular ceremonies, mutual visits and observance of customs. When an agreement is made, the boy’s parents, according to the order, go to the girl’s house to ask her parents for the girl’s hand in marriage. There is also another custom, when a “beshkert” (engagement) is performed at a young age with the consent of the parents of both parties. Although it rarely happens, it is believed that when the younger ones become adults, they should marry. The boy’s parents bring various ornaments for the girl when asking for her hand in marriage. Having reached an agreement, the boy’s parents and their relatives go to the girl’s parents after a few weeks, again taking jewelry and gifts. That ceremony is called “shirani” (at one time, “ghalim” was required on a girl’s head, which has now disappeared among Yezidis living in Armenia, because some young people from poor families could not get married because of it). After some time, they go to get the girl as a bride. An oath ceremony takes place when the fathers or close relatives swear by pressing their thumbs together in the presence of a sheikh or pir that they will preserve the unity of the family at all costs. It is an oath of loyalty and unbreakable alliance that Yezidis hold sacred. Apple is important at weddings, as a symbol of fertility.

wine-making

Winemaking

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There are many archaeological evidences of viticulture and winemaking in Armenia. The oldest refers to Areni Cave 1 of Vayots Dzor (4th millennium BC, 6000 years before us).

Wine has a long history in the Armenian highlands. In ancient Armenia, it was considered the drink of gods and kings. Armenian kings drank wine from silver cups. Traditionally, wine was made in the gardens or in the wine cellars adjacent to the residential complex. Grapes were poured into the sail of the upper part of the threshing floor, where the men crushed them with their feet (when sealing children, they applied maron to the feet of boys to crush wine, and to the hands of girls to knead dough). The brine flowed into a clay well made near the reef, called a gub, settled there, was partially filtered, and then flowed into underground limestone wells (takar) or vats. In these containers, the juice gradually matured, turned into a sweet pulp, and then, within forty days, turned into wine. Ripened wine was stored in cellars, buried in the ground or in above-ground vats, covering them with stone and clay lids, hermetically closing the cracks with clay plaster. The longer the wine stays, the more it matures, sweetens and thickens.

The opening of the festive ceremonies of the harvest is considered a period of blessing of grapes and wine. At present, a large winemaking industry has been formed in Armenia, which is continuously being improved. It is noteworthy that the traditional folk ways of winemaking have been preserved among home winemakers to this day. The implementation of the Areni Wine Festival is a manifestation of the continuity of the tradition.

Armenian-Letter-Art-and-Its-Cultural-Expressions

Armenian Letter Art and Its Cultural Expressions

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Inscribed in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Armenian letter art and its cultural expressions constitutes the centuries-old art of Armenian letters, Armenian scripts, the rich culture of decorating letters and its various uses. The element is based on the Armenian alphabet created in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, following the ‘one-letter-for-one-sound’ principle. The element is also distinguished by its wide range of ornamental scripts, generally classified by their shapes; knots, birds, animals, people, and mythical or imaginary creatures. Since their invention, Armenian letters have not only served their primary function to create written heritage, but also as numbers, cryptographs, riddles etc. Today, the letters are also used in handicrafts. Armenian letter art has penetrated almost all layers of society, particularly folk art. The element is practised across the Armenian territory and is integral to the cultural identity of Armenian people. Its bearers and practitioners include artists, carpet weavers, embroiderers, sculptors, linguists, calligraphists, jewellers and others. Educational institutions at all levels are involved in transmitting the related knowledge and skills to future generations, and several youth centres accord great importance to teaching Armenian letter art. Since 2008, continuous support has been shown for the annual ‘Granshan’ international design competition, and the Armenian Apostolic Church is central to acquainting children and youngsters with the element.

lavash

Lavash: the Preparation, Meaning and Cultural Expressions of Traditional Bread

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Lavash is a traditional thin bread that forms an integral part of Armenian cuisine. Its preparation is typically undertaken by a small group of women, and requires great effort, coordination, experience and special skills. A simple dough made of wheat flour and water is kneaded and formed into balls, which are then rolled into thin layers and stretched over a special oval cushion that is then slapped against the wall of a traditional conical clay oven. After thirty seconds to a minute, the baked bread is pulled from the oven wall. Lavash is commonly served rolled around local cheeses, greens or meats, and can be preserved for up to six months. It plays a ritual role in weddings, where it is placed on the shoulders of newlyweds to bring fertility and prosperity. The group work in baking lavash strengthens family, community and social ties. Young girls usually act as aides in the process, gradually becoming more involved as they gain experience. Men are also involved through the practices of making cushions and building ovens, and pass on their skills to students and apprentices as a necessary step in preserving the vitality and viability of lavash making.

A-Tradition-of-Making-and-Using-a-Wooden-Charm

A Tradition of Making and Using a Wooden Charm

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A wooden charm is a horseshoe-shaped carved wood with geometric, vegetal and cosmic patterns. Currently, there are no restrictions on wood type or size. Used at home to protect the person and in the countryside to protect pets. Wooden charms are placed above the front door, on the front wall of the entrance or on a nearby pillar. To protect the animals, they are hung around the animals’ necks, horns, or on the door of the barn, on the post, and to get a lot of butter, they tie it to a cork string. Small wooden charms are hung on children’s cribs or sewn onto the back of children’s clothing. They are also worn by women along with beads. The cultural feature of wooden charms is that they are pieces of applied art designed with national style emblems expressing the ideas of celestial luminaries, animals, water, fertility cults.

Protective wooden charms are still used today and are widely used, especially among the youth. Currently, the scope of their preparation and use is related to the activities of woodworkers and various social groups that keep alive and preserve the tradition of folk beliefs. Their use has a certain purpose due to the belief of protection from evil forces and aesthetic significance, when the charm is used as an ornament or decoration of the apartment. Modern craftsmen are very successful in copying the old, traditional forms of charms, as well as making new styles of wooden charms that are widely used.

tohmatsar

Family Tree

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It is a symbol of memory, phenomena, events and processes related to the history of the nation, the origin of the clan. Written information is found from the 19th century. It flourished especially in the 20th century and continues to thrive today. Fixes the awareness of the vertical and horizontal layers of family-blood kinship ties, lineage or super-lineage, memory, perpetuation of lineage names. Early versions of the family tree were a practice of recording the chronology of births and deaths of members of a family on the last page of the Gospel or Holy Book, which later became an independent unit, drawn on paper or in some other form, with an image representing the branching development of several generations through clay, wood carvings (from here (name: “family tree”). Varieties of family trees evolve along with life and modern technological capabilities are also used today.

It is vibrant and continues to evolve in terms of form and content. Today, family trees are drawn up in various artistic and aesthetic solutions, working to include at least seven generations of a family kinship group in vertical and as wide as possible horizontal directions.

krunk

“Krunk /Crane/” song

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It is a lyrical song of the lyrical genre on the theme of sojourn, which embodies two characters. The crane is the allegorical character of the song, and the poet is essentially the main character, the lyrical hero. These two different, completely opposite lyrical figures are united, as a result of which the crane is no longer seen as an allegorical figure, but personifies the exiled poet, the exiled man.

Together, the two become the worldwide symbol of Armenian people.

Being invented as a written song and finding distribution

mainly in written form – preserved his invention

features, measure and rhyme, substance and content. It has a linguistic and stylistic expressiveness, an original verbal and pictorial system. Perpetuated in society, transmitted through formal and informal learning.