We were back at St. John Armenian Church this past Friday for a special event the church has been hosting for over the last 40 years — the annual Bazaar Marketplace. The Bazaar is a celebration of their Armenian culture and faith featuring a homemade traditional Armenian dinner made by all volunteers, along with a country store, bookstore, fine arts, baked goods, Grandma’s Attic, vendors, and of course, music.
Before the Bazaar began, we had a chance to sit with Very Rev. Father Aren Jebejian for an understanding of the rich history of the Armenian community and the establishment of St. John church. There have been reports of Armenian people living in the United States as early as the 1600s, but most Armenians began to migrate around the time their people tragically endured a genocide between 1915 and 1916. They estimate between 664,000 and 1.2 million Armenian Christian people died during the genocide, either by massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.
Even today, the Armenians face persecution. The Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in Azerbaijan, a largely Christian community in a predominantly Muslim nation, is currently experiencing ethnic cleansing. Almost all of the estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have fled west to Armenia. Before the opening celebration of the annual Bazaar, Father Aren dedicated a moment of silence to honor those experiencing this tragedy.
We also had the chance to interview the St. John Music Director, Deacon Rubik Mailian. Mailian explained the uniqueness of the architecture of this Armenian church and others like it that are built specifically to benefit the music that is sung or played within the church. Whereas other churches may focus on the acoustics for the sermons, the Armenian church uses a structure that is more fitting for their practice of faith through liturgical song.
The Armenian people have a strong history with a tragic background that brings them even closer to their faith, culture and traditions. Their incredible food, music, language, and faith all help define who they are as a community.