Infancy and Funerals Among Armenians, 1896
The first thing that everybody in the house wants to know is, whether "the baby is a boy or a girl," but I do not think the mother will care…
From: Unknown To: 1896 C.E.
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“Infancy and Funerals Among Armenians” from Armenia and its People by Andon Andonios, 1896.
When an Armenian family is increased by a new visitor from the regions unknown, oh what joy there is in the house! Poor mother seems to forget all her troubles when her mother-like glances rest on the diminutive bit of humanity near her.
The first thing that everybody in the house wants to know is, whether "the baby is a boy or a girl," but I do not think the mother will care so long as the baby is her own.
If the baby is a boy, they are proud of it, but not so if it is a girl, because when she grows there is no millinery or drapery shop, no means to improve and make herself independent and a help to others, but must stay at home until some tender chord moves in some love-smitten bachelor to promote her. There is no business for Armenian ladies as there is for ladies in other countries. It is a special joy to the father when the baby is a boy! But I do not know what the boys would do if there were no girls in this world! It would be a funny world to live in, would it not? However, the baby is well wrapped in a white swaddling bandage, hands, feet, and all, except the tiny head, and is laid on its back in the cradle or basket, and everybody and anybody lifts the baby up like a ball, and so it looks in its tightly wrapped swaddle!
Poor baby dare neither move hands nor feet, all being so tightly wrapped! The baby has only to gaze on the admirers with his beautiful bright eyes, as much as to say, "Wait, wait till I grow, then I shall use my hands and feet." The Armenian babies are not dressed like the babies in other countries, where they use loose, comfortable gowns and enjoy perfect freedom.
A few days after the birth of the child those who are concerned in the baby hurry on to get it baptized; of course, they do this from a religious motive, and the poor baby is mercilessly plunged into the baptismal font by the priest. Oh, what a cry and rebellion follow from the helpless baby, you may guess!
What would you have done if they stripped you of your clothes and dipped you on your back into the cold water, while holding your hands and feet? Some young Armenian children might wish to know where did this baby come from! And such inquisitive chatter-boxes might be quieted by saying they caught the baby from the river, but that hardly satisfies them.
When an Armenian dies a candle is placed above the head of the corpse. The hands of the corpse are folded across the chest. The corpse lies on the bed spread on the floor, which is covered with a carpet or mat according to the circumstances of the house. The poorer people use mats. The mourners surround the deceased, and lament most pitifully. The sight becomes very heart-rending indeed when the deceased is carried to his resting-place by four friends, with gentle steps, while followed by the weeping and bewailing relatives and the crowd. The corpse is placed in the "chah," which is an open bier having rails all round its sides about one foot deep, and has four projecting poles, two in front and two behind. The Mohammedans, Jews, and Protestants carry the deceased in covered coffins, but only the Protestants line the outside of the coffin with black cloth and white ribbon round the lid.
The Mohammedans, Jews, and Protestants proceed hastily and in solemn silence to the cemetery, without any ceremony on the road. The Armenians and Greeks carry the corpse in a bier, as I described, and the dead body that is carried in an open bier is surrounded by evergreens and beautiful flowers and well dressed, while the hands are folded on the breast. The passers-by can see whether it is a young woman or an old man with his venerable, flowing, snow-white beard.
The Armenians make much ado in the streets at a funeral. The priest solemnly chants as he precedes the bier, while the fumes of incense, which burns in a censer swinging in his hand, fill the air deliciously and serve to remind one of the solemn occasion. A group of boys dressed in white gowns go in front of the priest, and carry crosses or pictures held on the top of poles.
Carrying the dead body in the open bier and the lamentation illustrate the ancient custom in Palestine, that existed about nineteen hundred years ago, which is proved by the story recorded so graphically in the Bible, of the widow's only son rising and sitting while he was being carried to be buried. The face of a dead person will, with eloquent silence, speak volumes to the passers-by. It says that "here lieth one who thought, spoke, loved, and was loved, and now what is left is nothing but clay; the real is no more here."
When the corpse is buried in the cemetery you may see the crowd treated with wine, as tea is not a universal beverage among the Armenians at any time. In a certain place you might see in a Greek cemetery on the gravestones the profession of the deceased sketched; that is, if he was a bootmaker, the sketch of a boot, and so on.
Andonios, Andon. Armenia and its People, The Winthrop Press, 1896.
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