Armenian Christmas as a City Holiday

Armenian Christmas as a City Holiday

Q:

What do you think of the Glendale Unified School District giving students the day off Jan. 6 for Armenian Christmas?

A:

While the decision to give the day off to Glendale students was based on practical and financial reasons, I’m thankful that it gave us another opportunity to herald the Good News of Christ’s birth while at the same time it recognized the cultural and religious diversity of our community.

As a priest of the Church I am continually challenged to bring a message of hope and love to hurting people. In this sense the value of the celebration is tremendous, because we celebrate the revelation of Love. True, the day off falls under the banner of “Armenian Christmas,” but the actual name of the celebrated feast is “Theophany,” i.e., the Revelation of God. It is the celebration of the birth of Love and the power of that Love against evil. Faith and commitment to this power is the foundation for strength, the drive to persevere against the odds and to survive where survival would ordinarily be impossible. It is the cornerstone of the Armenian Faith.

My personal celebration of January 6 this year was surrounded with the relief efforts for the tsunami victims on a global level, and closer to home, with the funeral of Carlos Piñon, the Hoover High student who fell victim of a drive-by shooting. Here we saw two opportunities for love to be revealed and the community responded in the spirit of the season. The value of a day-off will come in our ability to take the message of the day and use it as a metaphor for our daily pains and struggles. After all, giving birth to love is something not reserved for saints nor for the Virgin Mary and it definitely is not restricted to December 25 or January 6. Christmas is everyday for people of faith.

Just two decades ago our nation designated this weekend as a holiday in recognition of the life and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In concert with this commemoration we hear Dr. King’s call to look beyond a person’s skin color and see the content of his or her character. Yet we know prejudice and discrimination continue to fill the hearts of some. The true value of the King Holiday is in our ability to reflect on the work of this champion of civil rights, to learn from his teachings and to apply them in our lives. By so doing, we raise our consciousness to strive and work for a world where “black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants will be able to join hands…” Likewise, the commemoration of Armenian Christmas should stand as a witness to the strength of love over adversity. It is an opportunity for us to look beyond ourselves, to come together as a community and work toward our issues with love and respect for one other. It is a chance to reach out to the hurting people in the world and in our community with genuine compassion and care. After all, this is the true commemoration of Christmas.

Last year a coalition of African-American groups seeking to reduce urban violence in Cincinnati reached out to area businesses and engaged them in activities on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The holiday became a platform to address issues that were plaguing the Ohio community. My hope is that in the years to come, Armenian Christmas can be used similarly, to reach out to the hurting in our community, to address and squelch the prejudices we harbor, to relieve the tensions in our schools and to cultivate love and respect for one other. I hope that it never becomes just another day-off, but rings the bells of the Season one more time for all of us to hear.

Fr. Vazken Movsesian

St. Peter Armenian Church Youth Ministries

In His Shoes, International