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Sassoun – Festivals and Beliefs
Author: Sonia Tashjian
The people of Sassoun were staunch traditionalists. Driven by a need to protect themselves from outside threats, they had settled in the peaks of the mountains, isolated and independent from other areas. Consequently, their lives were firmly anchored in customs, traditions, and beliefs that had taken root over the centuries at an exceedingly local level. The area’s geographic position and the resulting natural environment, with all their distinct manifestations, strengthened the local system of observations and rituals.
The people of Sassoun lived in large families, each independent of and insulated from the others. Consequently, they greatly looked forward to the holidays, which they marked with family-wide celebrations. They welcomed the holidays with joy and anticipation, seizing the opportunity to make merry, sing and dance, and visit one another.
Gakhendoghig (New Year’s Holiday)
The New Year’s festivities began with the ceremony of poshd-poshd, held on the final day of the passing year. People visited each other’s homes, joyfully bidding farewell to the previous year by chanting “Dere male, sere sale, khode kourek beka je malkhoye male!” (“The door of the house, the head of the year; may God grant our host a son!”). During these visits, people would inconspicuously put aside portions from the holiday dishes for the poor. Then all would go home to prepare for the coming celebrations.
On that night, youth would go from home to home, climb onto the roofs, hang their socks down the chimneystacks, and call out – “Gakhntogh togh-togh, her hip gaynem danki boloz, kamin toghouts zmer koloz!” (“New Year’s togh-togh (a type of bread); when I stand at the top of the roof, the gale blows away my hat!”). The residents of each house would fill the socks with holiday fare and see off the youth.
By then, the entire family would be gathered around the hearth. A large log would be placed on the fire, called the “Maryam log”, which would burn all night and keep the fire going until morning. By then, they would’ve taken the pot of cereal off the fire, and would be enjoying the boiled cereal. Then, the lady of the house would fill the lamp with fresh oil, insert a new wick into it, and light it. The family would bring out the best of its supplies from its pantries – fruits, dried fruits, raisins, nuts, and basdegh (fruit leather), all reserved for the holiday feast. The household’s children would play sedentary games, the family’s patriarch would tell fairy tales, and the women would be busy setting the holiday table. The embers of the burning log would be extinguished in the morning, and bits of it would be preserved, to be used during various occasions throughout the coming year. For example, during the preparation of the Maryamadjash on the fifth of January, some of these embers would be thrown into the fire, in the belief that this would grant plentiful milk and good health to the family’s sheep. On the following day, embers from the same fire would be baked into the darehats (New Year’s bread).
The most important dish of the New Year’s celebrations was the pournig, prepared in every household on the first day of the year. As a holiday kata (pastry), the pournighad be baked with wheat flour. While kneading the flour, the lady of the house would put aside one or two handfuls of it in a separate bowl, call over the family’s 8- to 10-year-old girl, and give it to her to knead. This flour would be left to settle, turning into sourdough, and this sourdough would be used to bake the darehats on the following day. As the first of the leavened bread eaten in the new year, the darehats was thought to bring blessings, prosperity, and wealth to the whole family. A small portion of this flour was also given to the family’s children, in the belief that it prevented stomachaches. Then, the remaining flour would be kneaded further by the lady of the house, in order to prepare the pournig. While waiting for the flour to finish fermenting, she would prepare the stuffing, using crushed walnuts, parched hemp, and sweet fruit basdegh. Once the hearth was hot enough, she would roll out the dough and fill it with the stuffing. She would also place two pieces of wood into the pastry, one for luck, and the other as a talisman of dovlat (devlat – prosperity or success). After sweeping the floor of the hearth, and with the help of the other women, the lady of the house would place the pournig in the hearth, and would then cover it with hot embers. The pournig would be ready in a few hours.
Before midnight, the pournig would be brought to the table. The embers would be brushed away from the top, and then the lady of the house would use the tip of a knife to separate the pastry into portions. In addition to a portion for each member of the family, slices would be earmarked for the household’s livestock, the birds in the sky, the local spring, etc. In some families, the pournig would first be placed before the family’s patriarch, who would recite the Lord’s Prayer over it, and then split it into four portions – one for the males in the family, the second for the females, the third for the animals, and the fourth for nature. They would then further split up the portions and enjoy them. A token would be hidden in the pournig, and whoever found it was believed to be endowed with luck for the coming year. It was also believed that another member of his or her sex would be born into the family. No water would be drunk on that night, believing that this would accustom the people to the parched days of the summer.
Christmas Eve
The special meal of the day was the Maryamadjash, a type of harissa prepared with cereals and greens. The pot would be left on a low fire while everyone rushed to church. After evening mass, they would return home holding candles. A portion of the meal would be set aside for the poor and those who had been bereaved in the preceding year. The sick, too, would receive meals from seven households, who would visit them and pray with them, beseeching God for healing. Children who suffered from warts would pick out chickpeas from the dish, of the same number as the warts they had, wrap them in a cloth, and stuff this cloth into a corner of the fireplace, believing that within 40 days, their warts would be healed.
Chrorhnek (Consecration of Holy Water)
At dawn, the lady of the house would knead and bake the special holiday kata, shaping it using the family’s unique pastry mold. According to tradition, each family had its own mold, which was never relinquished to another family.
Then, as dictated by tradition, the lady of the house would heat water, so that all members of the family could bathe. On this holiday, it was customary to slaughter animals as offerings. Every family would slaughter at least a goat or a sheep, with some of the meat earmarked for the poor. One of the hind legs and the hide of each slaughtered animal were the share of the local priest.
A cross would be left immersed in the water throughout the church ceremony. When the holy oil was dripped into the water, the people would carefully note the dispersal of the drops. The oil not dispersing readily was seen as a bad omen. If the water cleared up immediately, it meant the crops would be plentiful that year. Women would carry some of the consecrated water back home, children would anoint their faces with it, and then all members of the family would drink it and give it to their animals to drink, in the belief that the water prevented illness. They would also pour some of the water into the tub they used for storing flour, believing that this would bless their bread and all who partook of it.
Derndes (Derendes)
Youth would run around crying “Dern des, sabata ges, mer khout ou pout ges!” (“Derndes, halfway through February, halfway to our riches and prosperity!”). The men would pile twigs and leaves on a large roof and await the visit of the priest. After mass, the priest and the deacons would arrive, singing along the way. Afterwards, they would perform the rite of Antasdan (a religious rite in which the priest blessed all four corners of the world), and finally, the priest would give his blessing – “May God bless our people; he who gives a lamb will be the first to light the flame.” And thus, whoever offered a lamb for slaughter won the right to light the fire.
The women, who until then had waited, standing in a row under the wall and holding oil lamps, would approach to light their lamps from this bonfire, and would then carry these lamps home, alongside the light and warmth of the blessed fire. This lamp had to stay lit until the following day. The men would sear leafy branches on the fire until the branches blackened. They would then take these branches home and rub them on their cattle. The shepherds would do the same. Then, when the flames receded, they would take the embers and scatter them in their fields, in the belief that this would bless the soil and bring prosperity. Young girls would throw a specimen of their embroidery into these flames, entreating God for even greater talent and the ability to learn more intricate patterns. The elderly would pour some of the ashes on snowballs and swallow them, in the belief that this would prevent the kami (an illness that struck the elderly in particular, causing intense shivering in the cold season). Women would mix the ashes with salt and feed it to their animals, while others would hold a bale of grass over the fire and feed that grass to their sheep on that same day. Recent mothers would walk around the fire seven times while holding their newborns. The young men would jostle each other into the flames, then jump over them. It was also customary to organize games in which they competed.
The shepherds would light Derndes fires outside their shacks in the mountains. In villages that lacked priests, it was customary to light several fires at several locations. At night, the sight of flames shooting up from various parts of these villages was a spectacular scene.
Kchkoni or Kamadeghik
On the Thursday of the Vartanants week, women would prepare the day’s special dish, made with dry milk curds. The entire family would gather around the hearth and partake of the meal. Then they would hang a rope from the ceiling, and take turns sitting underneath the swaying rope and exchanging good wishes – “Kamdeghig, deghig, deghig, im mamou pchouchig elli yeghig, im babou ksegig elli badig!”(“Kamadeghig (or kamateghig, the custom of swaying to be healed from illness), may my mother’s pots always be filled with oil, may my father’s pocket always be full!”). Meanwhile, the older members of the family would whisper their prayers and blessings – “God, give good fortune to my daughter. Bestow the crown of betrothal upon my son. Grant us a good death and deny us not thy kingdom.”
Feast Day of Saint Sarkis
Prior to the Feast Day of Saint Sarkis, the people of Sassoun – from the age of six to the elderly – would faithfully fast, eating only one meal per day, in the evenings. There were also those who took their fervor to another level, and had only one meal in the four-day period preceding the holiday.
In order to accustom children to fasting, the adults would call them “lousik bahogh”(“keepers of the light”), and would convince them that if they fasted, God would be sure to protect them into old age. On the morning of that Friday, mothers would bake a special type of flatbread for the children, in addition to the salty shourhats (or shour gougou), another type of flatbread, prepared for youth who had reached the age of marriage. That night, these youth would eat the salty flatbread and go to bed without quenching their thirst. They believed that whoever gave them water in their dreams would become their future spouse.
On that day, it was incumbent on all to wear their best clothes. They would gather and spend their time chatting, playing, and singing. This was meant to distract them from their hunger. Throughout the day, they would beseech the saint – “Saint Sarkis, tighten my belt, don’t let my spirit escape.”
The women would roast cracked wheat (dzedzadz) and corn, and then grind the roasted grains. The cereal would be used on the following day, to prepare the holiday’s special dish, pokhende djash (khashil). The mothers, anxious about their famished children, would be unable to sleep that night, and would rise early in the following morning to prepare pokhints pudding, djadjaroun with flour, or bread soup for the children to eat as soon as they woke up.
The pokhende djash was prepared in a large pot. All members of the family would gather around the table and partake together. Youth would secretly place a small amount of the food on the roof, and wait for a bird to eat it. It was believed that fortune would come from whichever direction the bird flew afterwards.
Shevtahan
Shevot/shevod (sabat or pourdig) was the name given to the spirit of the winter. It was a corruption of the word Pedrvar (February). At midnight, on the first day of March, all members of each family would pick up sticks and strike the walls, corners, and floors of the home, thereby scaring away and expelling the spirit of the winter from the home and inviting in the spring. While performing this ceremony, they would chant “Out with you, February! Come in, March!”
The people of Sassoun gave the name of zib to the week-long period stretching from the end of February into early March, during which the weather was very unpredictable. This weeklong period was also known as baravi kami (“hag’s gale”) or baravi ouler (“hag’s kids”).
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