Celebrating 38 letters
Armenian pontiff’s arrival and the 1,600-year-old Armenian alphabet are
cause for joy.
By Tania Chatila (GLENDALE PRESS – Published: October 7, 2005)
To understand the history of Armenian spirituality is to understand the
history of the Armenian Alphabet.
“The alphabet brought national identity to the Armenian people,” said Garbis
Der Yeghiayan, founding president of Mashdots College in Glendale, which is
named after the creator of the Armenian alphabet. “That was culturally and
nationally so very important for them.”
Now, 1,600 years after the alphabet’s creation, the Armenian community in
Glendale is celebrating, driven by a hope to worship in their own language
and, at the same time, celebrate the arrival of His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The Armenian pontiff, who traveled from Antelias, Lebanon, and arrived in
Los Angeles Wednesday, was at the Homenetmen Glendale Ararat Chapter
Thursday night to celebrate the alphabet’s creation and meet with the
community.
“It’s really symbolic,” said Ani Aghajani, who has been a member of
Homenetmen Glendale Ararat Chapter for 18 years. “It’s two really important
things coming together. Our language and our religion were the two things
that kept our people together for the hundreds of years we had nothing to
belong to.”
This is the first of several appearances he will make locally, including a
blessing at the new Western Prelacy building in La Crescenta on Saturday and
a visit to Glendale Adventist Medical Center on Thursday.
“These meetings give him the opportunity to reinvigorate the community with
a sense of purpose and a message of building bridges,” said Zanku Armenian,
spokesman for the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of
America. “It allows the pontiff to maintain a connection with his people,
his flock, his churches — and vice versa.”
Aside from the arrival of the pontiff, Thursday’s event featured 38
paintings from Armenian artists who were each assigned a letter of the
alphabet and were asked to paint what that letter inspired them to paint,
chapter officials said.
Saint Mesrob Mashdots of Armenia invented the Armenian alphabet in 405 A.D.
to provide the Armenian community with an outlet to worship in their own
written language, Der Yeghiayan said.
“For hundreds of years after adopting Christianity, Armenians did not have
the opportunity to worship God in their own language because the Bible had
to be read in different languages,” Der Yeghiayan said.
Before the alphabet was adopted, Armenians would read the Bible in Greek,
Assyrian or Persian.
Traditional Armenian legends say Mashdots received a revelation from God,
who revealed the letters of what would be the alphabet to him in a dream,
Der Yeghiayan said.
Historically, Mashdots spent years studying the language and meeting with
other scholars to create the alphabet’s first 22 letters, he said. After
testing the alphabet, he then decided to increase the letters to 36, and
after his death two more letters were added, bringing the alphabet to its
current total of 38.
“The first task for him and his associates was to translate the Bible,” he
said, adding that fifth century of Armenian civilization is considered to be
the Golden Era because of the alphabet’s creation and the Bible’s
translation.
“More people started to go to church to worship,” he said. “They were so
proud that they could finally read their own Bible in their own language.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress