Echoes of the Armenian Genocide in Folk Calendar

Abstract

The transmission of the memory of the Armenian Genocide has been reflected not only in a number of types of Armenian folk epic-lyrical folklore, but also in various memoirs, one of which has been the folk calendar. In the latter case, the person directly or through the mediator allegedly presents the atrocities of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. Calendar reflections on the transmission of the memory of Genocide realities are made through oral inquiries. Dialogical-interrogative structures expressed in these folk sayings come in various thematic manifestations: a. with a calendar description of birth dates, b. with the argument of the calendar time of marriage, c. with survey of the age of an eyewitness during the Genocide, reflecting the deportation/exile, d. pointing to the self-defense heroic battles, e. through episodes related to the heroes of the national liberation movement. The folk calendar is original, eloquent fragments of memory. They are presented through eyewitness-survivors’, their relatives’ or other persons’ accounts, as a unique historical and documentary material certifying the Armenian Genocide.