DC Sourp Mariam Community Anniversary
I attended the mass at Sourp Mariam today, and later on took part in a fun and interesting few hours of celebrations. Whereas St. Mary's Church itself wasn't built and didn't start holding regular service in the DC area until the 1950s or so, the women's guild has been around since 1932, and so, the 75th anniversary of an organised Washington Armenian community was commemorated today.
Very typical, Armenian style, everybody got together downstairs in the srah around a bunch of round tables. Bigwigs had arrived, including the primate from New York, and the ambassador. There was a lot of talking, lots of speeches (sometimes the talking and speeches were simultaneous), food, and a very nice video about the church's history, prepared by the local ACYOA. Oh, and the kiddies from the Sunday school sang a few songs, which was incredibly cute.
This was all very interesting for me, because I never grew up in an Armenian community per se, and I had heard about these sorts of events, but I've very limited experience in them. The atmosphere was very family-like, and heartwarming at times, such as when older or more active parishioners were handed awards of recognition.
And then came the cleaning up, which was probably the funniest part of all, because there was all this leftover food which was being accumulated in containers, each of the clean-up crew getting a fair share of hummos, cheese, kebab... Just as if you've gone to your aunty's house for dinner, and she's packing up some stuff for the people at home.
Some people were straggling behind, doing the usual chene, and as I went back and forth helping to clear one table, I swear, I took maybe three trips, but throughout the entire time, this one old Armenian lady was giving directions to another old Armenian lady to her house. So, I took some plates, and the conversation was like, "Adgets hedo arachin khachmerougn e", "Ad panin chi hasadz, che...?", and then I come back for the glasses, and they're like, "Hon cul-de-sac e", "Che, che, cul-de-sac chi ga, arachin khachmerougn e...", and so on...
As they said at the event, well done and good going for the first seventy-five years.
Very typical, Armenian style, everybody got together downstairs in the srah around a bunch of round tables. Bigwigs had arrived, including the primate from New York, and the ambassador. There was a lot of talking, lots of speeches (sometimes the talking and speeches were simultaneous), food, and a very nice video about the church's history, prepared by the local ACYOA. Oh, and the kiddies from the Sunday school sang a few songs, which was incredibly cute.
This was all very interesting for me, because I never grew up in an Armenian community per se, and I had heard about these sorts of events, but I've very limited experience in them. The atmosphere was very family-like, and heartwarming at times, such as when older or more active parishioners were handed awards of recognition.
And then came the cleaning up, which was probably the funniest part of all, because there was all this leftover food which was being accumulated in containers, each of the clean-up crew getting a fair share of hummos, cheese, kebab... Just as if you've gone to your aunty's house for dinner, and she's packing up some stuff for the people at home.
Some people were straggling behind, doing the usual chene, and as I went back and forth helping to clear one table, I swear, I took maybe three trips, but throughout the entire time, this one old Armenian lady was giving directions to another old Armenian lady to her house. So, I took some plates, and the conversation was like, "Adgets hedo arachin khachmerougn e", "Ad panin chi hasadz, che...?", and then I come back for the glasses, and they're like, "Hon cul-de-sac e", "Che, che, cul-de-sac chi ga, arachin khachmerougn e...", and so on...
As they said at the event, well done and good going for the first seventy-five years.
posted by Nareg at 3:16 AM
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