This morning we ate breakfast and headed to Dzizernagapert. Dzizernagapert means Citadel of Swallows, a name for a bird that always returns to its nest. Each of us received two flowers to place around the fire. The fire represents, Armenia’s spirit. A unique portion of the monument is tall, needle-shaped shaft which represents the rebirth of the Armenian people. The twelve imposing pylons represent the twelve provinces where Armenians were massacred. They surround the eternal memorial flame inside the fortress. Later on we went into the Armenian genocide museum and saw so many pictures of the Armenians that had been tortured in the genocide. I got very emotional, I thought I would cry. We saw thousands of Armenian orphans, and so many Armenians walking in the deserts of Der El Zor. After that we came back to the bus.
The Mesrob Mashdots church, in Oshagan,was built around the 1800’s. The church had a lot of frescoes on its walls. It isn’t very big, but if you go downstairs you can find the place Mesrob Mashdots rests. On the tome, there are lots of pretty flowers. Behind the church, there are beautiful khatchkars of the Armenian alphabet. We all took photos next our letters and infront of the Mesrob Mashdots statue. Mesrob Mashdots created 36 of the letters. Years later, during the 10th century, the last 2 letters, Օ and Ֆ, were created.
When you first encounter the entrance Echmiadzin Cathedral you will see an arch made of stone. On the arch, there are two people, facing each other, holding a metal cross. Those people are Krikor Lusavorich and King Drtad the third. Etchmiadzin was very pretty. Sadly, we couldn’t enter the church because it was under construction. Next to the entrance you will find Gevorkian Jemaran, the school Gomidas attended. We placed candles in «Մկրտարան», in honor of certain people. A couple months ago, the 5 grade class sold candles to people. Then when we set off to Armenia, they could have a candle set there for them. We prayed and took pictures infront of a huge khatchkar.
After that we went to Opera house and saw «Պարի Պետական» dance group. When they started dancing my mouth was left open. They were so incredible I couldn’t ever get tired from watching them. The girls danced very gracefully and the boys were very powerful and active. In one of the dances, they got into a circle and climbed on top of each other making a «բերդ». They had a live band that played beautiful music. The girls dances were much more different than the boys dances. The girls dances were more focused on the handwork while the boys dances were more focused on the footwork. It was a 2 hour long performance of excitement. It was a very fun day.
-Narineh and Alla