Screams Into the Abyss: Spring Equinox

Friday, March 20, 2020

Spring Equinox – The Birth of Vahagn

Վահագնի փառք:

In ancient Armenia, the Spring Equinox was celebrated as the birthday of the God Vahagn (Վահագնի ծնունդ). This holiday had similar connotations as Trndez, which was celebrated in February, as it marks the victory of Vahagn over the Vishap (dragons), symbolizing the triumph of spring over winter. Unlike Trndez though, the holiday never got Christianized, hence it isn’t widely celebrated in Armenia anymore. I suppose that’s the one downside when a pagan holiday doesn’t get appropriated by the church. Except for Winter Solstice, Christianity was never big on appropriating celebrations of equinoxes and solstices, tending rather to downplay their significance. There were at least two different ancient Armenian calendars. One of them had Vahagn’s Birth and the Spring Equinox as its New Year (happy 9603 by the way), but the more well-known ancient Armenian calendar has August 11^th as its New Year, as the anniversary of Armenia’s founder Hayk defeating the tyrant Bel and founding the first Armenian kingdom. At least both of those make a better justification than having January 1^st as New Year.

The 5^th Century Armenian historian Moses Khorenatsi, a Christian who often revised ancient Armenian history to suit the Bible, did not make the preservation of Armenia’s original pagan religion a top priority. However, he did supply us in modern times with this fascinating fragment of an old folk song about the birth of the God Vahagn, which would have been sung by traveling bards at the time.

In travail were heaven and earth,

In travail, too, the purple sea!

The travail held in the sea the small red reed.

Through the hollow of the stalk came forth smoke,

Through the hollow of the stalk came forth flame,

And out of the flame a youth ran!

Fiery hair had he,

Ay, too, he had flaming beard,

And his eyes, they were as suns!

Vahagn Vishapakagh (the Dragonreaper) was the God of fire, lightning, storms, and as his title suggests, he fought against dragons.

With regards to this poem, recently an ancient sculpture was unearthed in Gaziantep, Turkey; historically known as Aintap, an Armenian-populated city until the Armenian genocide, not far from Syria and the Mediterranean Sea. This sculpture depicts a God-like figure emerging from a reed. News articles claimed this was some “unknown”, “mysterious” deity. It’s not a huge stretch to hypothesize that it’s a depiction of the birth of Vahagn. But Turkey wants to erase any evidence of Armenia of course, so they’ll never admit it. The same thing happened when a statue of the Goddess Anahit was discovered as well. If the sculpture had been discovered within the borders of modern Armenia, most likely archaeologists would have no problem saying it was a depiction of Vahagn.

Despite the whitewashing of history over the centuries, we do have a few stories about Vahagn which have survived the ages. One legend tells that the Milky Way galaxy was created during a cold winter when Vahagn stole straw from the Assyrian King Barsham and dropped bits of it across the sky while bringing it to Armenia, hence the Armenian name for the Milky Way is the Straw Thief’s Way, giving Vahagn a trickster aspect to his personality. Just as Vahagn fought the dragons who were said to cause the deadness of winter and hoard water, Vahagn goes to great lengths to provide for humanity, even if it does mean theft. Vahagn’s wife was Astghik, the Goddess of Love, and he formed a triad with Aramazd, the chief creator God, and Anahit, his sister, Goddess of Motherhood.

The Temple of Garni, originally a temple to Mihr, was reconsecrated to Vahagn by Armenia’s modern neopagans. There also exists a modern statue of Vahagn in Armenia's capital, Yerevan.