Epress.am News from Armenia
Today’s weddings are only a meager part of the range of Armenian traditions, said ethnographer Rafayel Nahapetyan at a press conference today, adding that many traditions have been upheld in Armenia’s villages. Fortunately they’re preserved, the tradition-loving ethnographer made a point of saying.
“Recently, I was the best man at a wedding in Idjevan, where while getting the bride from her paternal [family] home, the bride’s brothers had blocked the road with tractors and cars and were asking for money. This is a centuries-old Armenian wedding tradition, which is very beautiful. And why shouldn’t this tradition be followed? It strengthens the friendship between the in-laws,” said Nahapetyan.
“A dowry’s also quite right; it’s quite consistent with our reality: with it, a father economically improves her daughter’s situation,” he said, informing journalists that the dowry was formed when society moved to private property ownership.
“But now, right away, on the day of the wedding, they give the girl a house key. But shouldn’t a bride come, enter into her husband’s hearth [home], learn to love her husband’s parents as her own. My daughters-in-law, until they didn’t have 2 children in my home, I didn’t permit them to live separately,” explained Nahapetyan proudly.
He also added that Armenian historians bypassed the subject of wedding ceremonies in Armenian historiography; they didn’t give the subject significance.
“Only to make comparisons with the traditions of other countries were many unconnected records made, with which we are informed that Armenian historians judge love-based marriages and divorces, considering them not in line with Christian morals,” he said.