Armenian culture and traditions

Armenian Culture

One of the oldest countries in the world is Armenia and it has a recorded history of about 3500 years. The oldest known links of modern Armenians, the Hayasa-Azzi tribes, also known as Proto-Armenians, were native to the Armenian Highland in Eastern Anatolia. (Armenian history in brief)

Armenians belong to an ethnic group and have originated in the Caucasus and eastern Asia. A large number of people live in Armenia, but are almost spread throughout the world. The history of the Armenians is the history of Armenia. Armenia first came into history around 800 BC as part of the Kingdom of Urartu or Van, which was the first Armenian state, formed in 190 BC. During 95-65 BC, when it was at its peak time, that state widened to what is now eastern Turkey and Lebanon. In 64 BC it became a part of the Roman Empire. Armenia became the first nation to take on Christianity as a state religion. Later Armenia depended on the Church to conserve and safe guard its exclusive identity. The concentration of Armenian nationalism from 1100 to 1350 was on the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which had close links with the Crusader States. Between the 4th and 19th centuries Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols and Ottoman Turks ruled Armenia. In the 1820s areas of historic Armenia under Persian control within Yerevan and Lake Sevan were included into Russia. (Armenian People: Wikipedia)

Armenia was an independent republic for a short period from 1918 to 1920 when the Russian Empire was broken in the after effects of World War I. In late 1920, the communists came to power subsequent to an attack of Armenia by the Red Army, and in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic, later the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and which is now the independent state of Armenia. Armenia has a long history of conquering, or being captured by a large number of peoples. The terrible harassment of Armenians took place in the last decades of the Ottoman Empire. With World War I in evolution, the Turks saw the Christian Armenians as apt to collaborate with Imperial Russia and, decided to engage with an entire ethnic population as an enemy within their empire. Armenians today are spread all over the world as a result of the Armenian Diaspora. About 3-3.5 million Armenians reside in Armenia, but we could also find about 2-2.5 million in Russia, 408,000 in Georgia, at least 400,000 in the United States, 250,000 in France, 200,000 in Iran, 156,000 in Nangorno-Karbakh, 100,000 in Syria, 75,000 in Lebanon, 50,000 in Turkey, and more in other countries. And in total there are about 8 million throughout the world. As per the U.S. Census figures, there are 203,000 Americans who talk Armenian at home. In AD 301, Armenia became the first nation to accept Christianity, a church that still subsists autonomously of both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. (Armenian People: Wikipedia)

Amongst the Europeans, Armenians were the first to come to America. Most Armenians who came to America in the nineteenth and early twentieth century came from the Armenian heartland, central and Eastern Anatolia, which had come under the influence of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians were being educated and mingled beyond their position in Muslim society. Armenians, frankly, believed that their new position gave them new rights, particularly as wards of the Americans. By 1854, only about 20 Armenian immigrants was found positively in the American records, and by 1870, that number had increased to 70. Many of these new arrivals were no longer the best graduates of the American missionary schools but rather youths belonging to the traditional Armenian Church with little or no education, who came at great forfeit to search their luck in the New World. Soon these men soon found that the streets of America were not covered with gold, and that jobs were hard, unsafe and difficult to get, most of them found employment as unskilled laborers in the many factories and mills of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Though it was a difficult work in the factories, but it was better than living in Turkey. (Armenians in America)

By 1890, the number of spotted Armenians in America had crossed over 2,000. Armenians were not drinkers or gamblers. They were considered the best employees. But unluckily the decline in America gave them unemployment problems and they had to make do as they could. They engaged themselves with self-help and refused to get help. The Armenian communities spread to mid-western factory towns like Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, East St. Louis, Missouri and Wisconsin. Large groups also went to California to take on agriculture. Many Armenian Protestants, who are more educated than the believers of the Armenian Church, moved to upstate New York to work in the electrical and chemical industries in Troy, Syracuse, Buffalo, and others towns.

The Armenians in America planned themselves in groups to meet their material and social requirements. The people who came to America had to set up family units to live and to produce offspring. The method of finding the other half was difficult. Hence many of them got married outside the Armenian circles. Some married Americans of lower status. The community did not accept them. But on the whole, the Armenians are well settled in America and show success in whichever field they are like finance, education, construction, manufacturing, industry, music, composing, literature, opera, film making, acting, design, advertisement and politics. The Armenians have constantly been a Diaspora people, and each of these Diasporas has changed or vanished over time. (Armenians in America)

The largest Armenian community, other than that in Armenia, exists in America. This Armenian American community is the erudite and affluent community. The triumph of Armenians in America has been credited to their expertise in business and crafts, their very high degree of literacy, an extensive history of minority status, and solid efforts. Due to the immense value their parents put on education, second and third generations bent towards the professions and teaching. Armenians have accomplished national and international reputation in the arts. Some of the Armenians have made vocations in American politics, like George Deukmejian, who held the position of Governor of California two times. Armenians are pleased with their contributions in the following cases: their support of Etchmiadzin, in the gigantic charitable aid given since the 1988 earthquake, occupations in top government positions, in the founding of American University of Armenia, which is the first key experiment in American higher education in the earlier Soviet Union. (Armenians in the United States)

The hurdles confronted by Armenians when they first came to America were: language problems, non-availability of skill to locate employment, and the adversities of poverty. As coming to America was not an option cheerfully made, Armenians did not see the United States as the secure land. So as to run away from the annihilation and persecutions of the Turks, the Armenians immigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. To start with, Armenians moved to the eastern part of the United States, focusing their dwelling in areas such as Boston, Rhode Island, and New York. but, they determined to move to California to look for land; they principally reached cities like Glendale, Hollywood, and Fresno. As California was the closest to Armenia, they gradually purchased land and settled in California. Armenians confronted the adversities of poverty because they got little money when they joined workforce. Like any other culture coming to America, Armenians encountered adversities in America. (Multiculturalism and the History of Poverty in the Valley)