Category: Activity Pages

Agladeez – Armenian Lenten Baba tradition

Agladeez! It’s a thing. This time last year, Hagop came home from school with a new song stuck in his head. “Agladeez, Agladeez…” (this one). Vartan hadn’t heard the song before, and I wasn’t sure if Hagop was actually singing in Armenian, or incorrect Armenian, or full out gibberish. Turns out, real Armenian, real thing. A few days later, he came home with a puppet/doll they made in class, out of a dowel, popsicle stick, burlap outfit, and a potato for a head with 7 feathers sticking out. His teacher emailed us a brief explanation. I googled, but there’s pretty much nothing about this in English with Western transliteration, so hi, hello.

The Agladeez (or Agladiz) has seven feathers, representing the seven weeks of Great Lent, Medz Bakh. Every Saturday evening after Paregentan, you remove one feather from the Agladeez, counting down to Easter.

From Hagop’s teacher, “It is traditionally is made on the Monday after Paregentan, on the first day of Great Lent (medz bahk). The Agladeez was hung from the ceiling to remind everyone not to break the fast. It has seven feathers on its head, each one representing one week of lent. Each Sunday, please remove one of the feathers, this way the Agladeez will become a calendar showing how many weeks are left until Easter.”

Here are two sources about the folk tradition, in Armenian, but translate plug-ins in your internet browser should give you a good idea of the customs..:

https://surbzoravor.am/post/view/mets-pahqi-%D5%AAoghovrdakan-sovorutyunnery

https://araratian-tem.am/post/1101

https://www.armgeo.am/en/armenian-national-dolls

Here are a few quick coloring pages I made for my kids, because Hagop was briefly obsessed with this idea last year. Last year, I just sketched them out and we colored them. This year, I made black & white digitized versions (woo! I’m learning!). We colored them, put googly eyes on, glued feathers on top. Fun times were had.

agladiz-drawing-pagesDownload
Agladiz onion, outlineDownload
Agladiz apple, outlineDownload
Agladiz potato, outlineDownload
Turnip agladiz, outlineDownload

Activity and coloring pages for Armenian Christmas / Epiphany

Here we are, on the 1000th day of winter break, just now approaching our big celebration of the season – Armenian Christmas. Armenians celebrate Christmas along with Epiphany on January 6th each year – having never changed the date of Christmas like other Christian denominations did. More on “Why January 6th?” here: https://armenianchurch.us/the-lord/nativity-and-theophany-of-our-lord-and-the-feast-of-the-naming-of-jesus/

I put together a dozen or so activity pages for my kids to do over the next few days, anticipating lots of time in church. While I’d love for them to focus on the service and icons and hymns… they’re 3, 4, and 6, and I’ll be watching them solo while family serves in other places, so back-up activity pages it is. They’re geared towards a younger set of kids. Mine haven’t tried these yet, but they’re similar to the wedding activity pages I made a few months ago, which were a hit.

I also previously posted a coloring page for Christmas, for more advanced coloring.

Krisdos dznav yev haydnetsav!

Armenian Christmas and Theophany, activity pagesDownload

Armenian Advent Calendar Page

Here’s what we’re using instead of the Countdown to Christmas advent paper chain this year. Our youngest is 3 and a total hellion, so there’s no way we can keep a paper chain intact/intentionally used for 50 days.

I’d love something sturdier like this advent calendar from Draw Near designs, but they’re on a different calendar than us so I can’t just buy that one, and I don’t sew well enough to make my own. Maybe someday. For now, sticker chart!!

For more on Armenian advent in general, see: What is Advent? from the Eastern Diocese’s website.

Hisnag calendar, Armenian Advent countdownDownload

Armenian Advent / Hisnag, countdown to Christmas paper chain

Zabel, adjusting the countdown paper chain on our mantel.

Here’s something we did last year to mark advent. It’s a paper chain countdown, with the numbers 1-50 in Armenian. We cut the strips out, taped them together, and then the kids ripped one link off the chain each day until January 6th. I don’t know if we’re going to do a countdown chain again this year or something else (the fast of advent begins today, so we’d better figure something out quickly). If we do the chain again, I’ll add star stickers onto Armenian Christmas and American Christmas… Our kids got to Dec. 25th and it felt like we should mark it in some way on the chain.

hisnag-countdown-chain-2-alternating-colors-1Download
Hisnag countdown chain 2, alternating colorsDownload

^ There are two different versions of the document, with different fonts. Enjoy!

edited later to add… Another Advent countdown, but more manageable = https://hye.home.blog/2024/11/20/armenian-advent-calendar-page/ = on a single page.

Armenian wedding activity pages for kids

My brother-in-law got married this past weekend, and they had invited a lot of kids to the wedding. I made a bunch of activity pages and coloring pages to keep kids occupied during the service and speeches, etc. A lot of the wedding activity pages you can find on Etsy or other sites are for Americanized weddings, and I wanted things that felt a little more appropriate for an orthodox wedding. The ones I made for my brother-in-law and his new wife (yay!) were more customized to their names, occupations, etc. But since I made them, I’ll share them!

Armenian wedding, activity pages for kidsDownload

Armenian prayer for St. Nicholas

I took the English translation of a sharagan (hymn) about St. Nicholas, arranged it in a Word doc with a decorated first letter (a la old manuscript style), printed it, and had the kids rip up/glue yellow paper to make a frame around the prayer. The sharagan is sung on St. Nicholas’s feast day, which is almost always the third Saturday of Advent in the Armenian church. (I think it was moved this year, because the 3rd Saturday of Advent fell on Dec 9th – one of the Armenian church’s few fixed feasts, when we celebrate the conception of Mary.) I grabbed the translation of the sharagan from “Saints Nicholas in Armenia,” linked to by the Eastern Diocese here and you can also find the full publication on Google Scholar. It’s not a very user-friendly / modern / usable / readable translation, to me at least, but fussing with it is way beyond my abilities so I left it as is for now. Maybe someday will redo. Download the doc below to make your own.

st-nicholas-prayerDownload

“The bodiless ones were amazed when they saw blessed Nicholas, whose conduct in the body was without compare to those possessing a body. By his prayers, entreat forgiveness of sins.

Rejoice, Mother Sion, and ineffably adorn your bridal chamber, for blessed Nicholas in his body has triumphed over bodiless Beliar. By his prayers, entreat forgiveness of sins.

Imploring, we sinners entreat you, Most Holy Trinity, to forgive our sins by the supplications of Nicholas. By his prayers, entreat forgiveness of sins.

Holy lady, Mary, golden urn and ark of the covenants, who gave the gift of the Bread of life from heaven to our starving natures. Intercede always with him for the expiation of our sins.”