Previously in episode 1 we left Daniel armed to the teeth age six.

 FROM DANIEL’S DIARY.

5. ‘MISSED CHURCH ON SUNDAY’

Zeitun was a town of 15,000, all Armenians with another 15,000 in the surrounding villages. On Sundays all work stopped and everybody went to church. Father was in bed, therefore mother could not go to church but I was expected to go and join my maternal grandfather (Ghazoy Dada = Lazarus grandpa).

 One Sunday, instead of going to church I went with friends to our garden (Astzoulnak) probably about 6 or 7 km from town. A woman reported it to my parents who became furious because they considered this a very serious matter.

 This was the second occasion when I couldn’t go home and had to take refuge at my aunt until evening when matters cooled and arrangements worked out between my aunt and my parents concerning my guilt.

6. ‘MY GRANDPA GHAZOY DADA AND THE CHURCH’

Ghazoy Dada, my maternal grandfather was a very tall and handsome man. He was very kind and generous to all but loved me in a very special way. He was very active in the church (Asdvadzadzine). On special feast days he read from the book of the prophets. People from other churches would join our church to hear him read (or rather chant as well as read) from the book.

 He could not be ordained as priest because he did not have a son and also because his wife died. To be a priest one had to have his first wife living and a son from her.

 Ghazoy Dada was always in front in the ‘Tass’ with the priest and deacons, there I could join him and stand in front of him. With his lips he would play with the hair on my head.

7. ‘PABOUJIANS AND BUILDING OF THE CHURCH OF ASDVADZADZINE’

 Zeitun had four quarters with four churches and four princes (Ishkhan). Sadly there had been hostilities between them. In my days there were no such “wars” but each quarter maintained its peculiarities, its “prince”, its dialect, its costumes and its church.

 Our quarter was the Sourenian or central quarter where were located the central market, government house, the central high school and the prelature.

Our church was Asdvadzadzine. Mother tells me that while it was being built particularly everybody in the quarter had to contribute money and work. From her family alone (Paboujians) three people were killed by accidents in building the church:

• Babik a young man died because while unloading from a mule a section of a stone pillar fell on him and crushed his belly. Babik was my mother’s uncle.
• Mother’s grandfather also ultimately died of a wound caused by a stone falling on his leg. His name was Haji Panus.
• Sahag, another uncle of my mother, a young carpenter who was engaged to be married fell from a scaffolding while working in plastering the church. A very handsome and kind person.

Three persons from the same family, father and two sons, died in building this church. Of course they were volunteers and in each case the accident happened because they were being assisted by other volunteers who were not trained for the job they were doing. Everybody was anxious to give a hand in building the church. In memory of these three death the Paboujians were given a special section reserved for them.

8. ‘THE ZEITUN COSTUME’

I have vivid memories of my first and only Zeitun costume on Easter Day 1914. I was then old enough to have a man’s costume and I was very proud of it.I had a ‘Postal’ (soft boot) with coloured metal pieces on it and white underwear.

My culotte was tied just below the knee but flowing down to cover the upper part of the boot. Then I had a ‘zouboun’ with three parts (three pésh), striped blue and white, two side parts of the ‘zouboun’ were folded up to the wrist. Then I had ‘zafa’ from the sleeves. These sleeves are long and wide hanging more than an arms length from the wrist. The ends of these two sleeves are tied together and thrown to the back of the head. Thus, anyone who saw me from the front would see all white, top to bottom. Grownups would be dressed in the same way but would have a ‘abaya’ with gold ends.

 

A group of Armenians in 1915

Armenian traditional dance

Armenian intellectuals in 1915

Daniel talking about how our family helped build the local church reminds me of my own experience with the church. Can you believe that the first time I understood what a priest was talking about in a church service was at my wedding because as I was marrying a Palestinian so the service was in Arabic. The previous 30 years, I was dragged to Armenian churches where the priests preached in classical Armenian, which I didn’t understand! And why didn’t I understand it? Because my parents (in their wisdom) wanted to integrate us into Lebanese society and they did this by sending us to a top French school in Beirut. The result is I speak perfect French, perfect Arabic, perfect English but only colloquial Armenian. I wonder do you really have to know a language to feel a belonging and an identity? What makes us identify with anything?

Some food for thought.

Here is a some more from Daniel’s diary to keep the story going..

FROM DANIEL’S DIARY.

9- “A RIFLE SEIZED IN OUR HOME.”

It must have been during the summer of 1914 because mother, sister and myself were sleeping on the roof when the police came in. Mother went down to meet them. Later on I learned that a rifle (Martin) had been unearthed from our stable.

Nishan Yezekielian, a well-educated young man with certain ideas of resistance (against) oppression had buried his rifle in our stable, which was considered free from suspicion because our family had no adult male member. Somebody betrayed him and under torture he confessed to having a rifle and told them where it was hidden…

To be continued..

Menak Parov…See you next time.