By Simon Maghakyan
Today, I was jokingly called a traitor. My betrayal was attending two Armenian Christmas services at the same time. I know this does not make sense, but be patient and read. Armenians, who are generally labeled as family and church oriented, have two churches: both of them Apostolic (eastern Orthodox) indeed.
The first church is the Holy See of the
So I live now in this American state in the
So today we had Christmas service; in two different churches at the same time. We went to the one we got the first invitation from (first come, first serve). The next one only let us know about the service yesterday, and when I angrily asked why could not they have scheduled another day since there was already an Armenian church service, I was told that the airline tickets for the priest (coming from California) had been bought 3 weeks before.
After we received communion in the first church, my Mom and I left for the next church (we really wanted to see our friends at the “other church” as well). Of course, some of the organizers in the first church were not happy, neither the ones in the next one. But who cares. If they want to have two different services at the same time, I guess I have to go to both of them.
We really had nice time at the second one (when we went, the service was over). We joked a lot, and we “married” a couple. I was the tamada (the toast master). Oh, in the first one, during the service, the fire alarm turned on, so it was quite noisy for a while.
OK. If you think this story was interesting, leave here a comment, so that I know whether I should post things like this.
P.S. Since 301AD, Armenians have been celebrating the Christmas on 6 January. It is said that the rest of the world did the same, until in the late 4th century the Greeks switched the date to a Pagan celebration, on 25 December, to gain more popularity.
Simon Maghakyan
8th January 2006
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.blogian.cjb.net