`A’-nauguration: Oshakan, the first pilgrimage for Armenian first-graders
Education | 15.10.12 | 11:49
Children make their first pilgrimage to Oshakan wearing letter `A’
By Julia Hakobyan
ArmeniaNow Deputy Editor
>From mid-September on for several weeks a small Armenian village at
the foot of Mount Aragats becomes a tourist attraction.
Most of those visiting Oshakan are not quite usual tourists as they
just turned six. One by one buses leave for Oshakan where
first-graders from around Armenia visit the Church that is the resting
place for perhaps the most iconic figure of Armenian history – the
creator of the Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots.
Enlarge Photo
Enlarge Photo
Arina Zohrabian discovers Oshakan along with her daughter Alexandra
In the Church they are met by a priest, who, with each group of
pupils, conducts a quick history lesson. Children descend to a small
cell to thank Mashtots for the written language that he granted to the
Armenians and mark their first learned letter of the Armenian
alphabet.
Shrouded in myths and legends and surrounded by vineyards and
pomegranate orchards, Oshakan (which is situated about 30 kilometers
from capital Yerevan, in the Aragatsotn Province) is the first
pilgrimage place for most Armenian children. Along with the first day
of school or the first received mark, visiting Oshakan is a kind of
initiation for Armenian pupils, and teachers start preparing children
for this ritual well in advance, in fact throughout September, telling
them about the Armenian alphabet and its history.
The modern Armenian alphabet which was created by Mashtots at the
request of King Vramshapouh, consists of 36 letters. Created 16
centuries ago, the alphabet, except for three added letters, has not
undergone any change and is used now entirely in its original form.
Mashtots, a monk, theologian and missionary, devoted 45 years of his
life to preaching Christianity and 35 years to the dissemination of
Armenian written language, opening schools in different provinces of
the country and promoting literacy.
Mashtots was honorably buried by Armenia’s ruler Vahan Amatuni in the
village of Oshakan, where on his tomb a church was built in 443.
Mashtots’s importance is also in the fact that he is the first
historical figure whose creating a writing system is not connected
with a legend, but is documented. While the uniqueness of the alphabet
he created is that it was fully adapted to the language, which means,
the letters are pronounced the way they are written.
Children feel very excited about their trip to Oshakan, but they are
still six-year-olds and act like ones. For them, going on a collective
trip out of town is a joyous occasion in itself. They happily eat
their buns made in the shape of the Armenian letter `A’, running about
a large courtyard of the St. Mashtots Church, playing hide-and-seek
amidst two-meter-high letter khachkars located close by.
In the meantime, a visit to Mashtots’s Oshakan grave is perhaps more
interesting for their parents. For at least five of them, who are
repatriates, the Friday trip was perhaps more `emotionally charged’
than for others.
Among such parents was Arina Zohrabian, who along with her daughter
Alexandra discovered Oshakan and got a first-hand experience of things
she had learned at a Sunday school in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA.
Zohrabian moved to Armenia 10 years ago when she was 23, she married a
local Armenian and now they raise two daughters.
`To be able to join our children and see them as they embark on this
beautiful journey of reading and writing in Armenia is a privilege –
and one I’m sure I wouldn’t be afforded in the US,’ she says. `And I
hope that Alexandra’s school years will not only be educational for
her – but for me as I witness firsthand the wonderful opportunities
provided to children here during their elementary schooling.’
Along with the American accent, one can hear in the class of my son,
Victor, also Syrian and Lebanese accents. All 5 repatriates came to
Armenia many years ago, settling down in and recovering their
motherland about which they had heard from their ancestors.
It will take quite some time before our children understand the
importance of the Armenian alphabet which was created once and for all
and which became one of the cornerstones of the Armenian Church and
had a huge spiritual influence on the Armenian people during the long
centuries when Armenia was under the control of other states.
Meanwhile, during this Oshakan trip, for their parents, locals or
immigrants, the idea of a unified Armenian nation acquired quite a
visible shape due to a single spoken and written language that helped
Armenians not to get assimilated while living in foreign land, a
language through which they can understand each other. And our
children and generations to come will be going to Oshakan to thank the
creator of this alphabet that enables us to do all that.