OTL Blog

In Armenia a very old rite called “The Red Apple” marks the woman’s loss of virginity following the night of her wedding. It can be argued that this symbolizes much more than simply a “loss of virginity”, indeed, the symbolism of the celebration is very violent.

Armenians celebrate weddings by chanting and dancing outside and inside their homes, brandishing cakes and foods and inviting the neighbors over.  During the The Red Apple, which is a similar celebration on the day following the wedding, the family of the groom brandishes a meter long sword topped by a Red Apple. They parade and dance in the street with the Apple and the sword.  While not everyone practices this tradition, as there are different types of classes, families, interests and localities in Armenia, everyone knows of The Red Apple.

When one thinks of it for a few seconds, this is the piercing of a “fruit” by a very phallic and deadly tool. This is a celebration of the woman loosing her hymen. At first when the women at Utopiana, a NGO for contemporary arts, told me of this celebration I was not sure what “an apple stuck on a sword” implied.  I said: “so what?” but quickly realized the red apple is the vulva/blood/flesh and the sword was a phallus, or masculine power. The rite itself may be “cute” but the symbols are clearly violent and patriarchal – for example, the sword has to be oversized (not just a regular knife) and of course, it is also a deadly tool.

Thus the Women’s Resource Center in Yerevan (Armenia’s largest city) will “Bury the Red Apple” on March 8th, International Women’s Day, by performing a funeral procession towards Republic Square, the town center.

The funeral rite will be stylized as Armenian. We will lead Mr. Apple, someone dressed in a 3D apple outfit, with chains, carrying flowers and a tombstone while a woman-priest (a teacher from the women’s center will dress up as one) will chant a modified reading of “funeral biblical scripts” replaced by verses about the end of the Apple. We will end the walk in a “lover’s park” in front of Congress Hotel where we will rip the Red Apple apart and bury the pieces in the ground. As a final celebration we will pour cement onto the spot and inscribe “Here lays the Red Apple” (“…..-2009). A party in the park will follow.

I am sure the priests ready to admit the positive side of our protest, are rare. Men here deny a lot to conserve what they see as national Armenian values. The point of such a colorful protest is the theatrical value of such an old issue- a lot of women will hear of this burial through the media (the modern theatrical component protesting the old traditions) and I am sure a lot of women will secretly agree with its powerful message which at once both a mockery and a pleasure filled comedy for change.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Activism, Community issues, Culture-jams, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.