Armenian weddings have included modern elements and details from foreign cultures, but there are many couples who still prefer to get married in Armenian national dress and traditional ceremonies.
The director of the Erebuni Museum Archaeological Preserve, Mikayel Badalyan, was one of the Armenians who fulfilled his dream and got married at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Akhtamar Island. “It has been my dream since childhood to get married at the Holy Cross Cathedral on Akhtamar Island wearing an Armenian taraz. The island, taraz, and church are the most important symbols of our national identity. When I saw a picture of Akhtamar Island for the first time, I fell in love with the island and the church. I prayed that my wedding would take place there with God’s blessing. I was already dating my future wife at the time. I told her about my idea, which she also liked very much. It was November when I told her that we have to go to Akhtamar, which she responded to happily,” Mikayel Badalyan told Aravot Daily.
He said that it was a difficult time in 2016. There were clashes between Turks and Kurds in the Van and Ararat regions, and many people advised them not to go. But they decided to go regardless of everything. “Our wedding took place with God’s blessing on November 23rd while wearing Armenian taraz. It was an indescribable feeling to have an Armenian priest marry us in Holy Cross. It seemed like God made that day just for us. The island was peaceful, the weather was clear and sunny, and it seemed like it was all God’s blessing. We got married and celebrated in Van. We now dream of baptizing our daughter in one of Van’s churches because we named her after King Menua’s wife, Queen Tariria. He gifted her vineyards on the shores of Lake Van and left cuneiform inscriptions noting this. We also want to baptize Tariria in our homeland, Western Armenia, in the Van basin,” Badalyan said.
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We asked him to provide some details about ancient Armenian weddings. “Since I am only a specialist in ancient times, I will only speak about ancient traditions. There were wedding texts from the Hayasa state and Hittite empire. With regard to the Urartu- Ararat- kingdom, they even have a representation of wedding on an Urartian belt. The wedding begins and the guests leave the house with the musicians. Just like nowadays, people went from one house to the other. There is even an image of how the bride’s bed is prepared and how the veil is held above her head. There is also a belt that has carvings of the bride’s dowry being taken in a carriage. This has been clearly fixated in Urartian imagery. It is also important to note the wedding of Artashes and Satenik, which Movses Khorenatsi also wrote about,” the archaeologist said.
We also asked Mikayel Badalyan to discuss what, if anything, has been maintained in modern weddings. “Today’s weddings have been very modernized, which is a challenge for the times. However, within our national consciousness, many people willingly hold onto old traditions. Our behavior often reproduces old traditions in that way,” he said. For example, many people say “on my father’s/mother’s sun” when they swear, and we are reproducing our worship of the sun in that manner.”
Gohar Hakobyan
