MIDDLE EAST HISTORY POLITICS CULTURE XIII MIDDLE EAST XIII | Page 136

HASMIK ABRAHAMYAN
(IAE)
KAMAVOR (THE VOLUNTARY) FASTS IN THE
ARMENIANS DAILY LIVING
Fast is an important part of a Christian's devotional life. Ethno-
graphical, biblical and canonical sources affirm that in the perioud of V-XX
centuries except of the canonical fasts (one-day fast, one-week fast, The
Lent), among the people were established the kamavor (voluntary) fasts.
People kept the voluntary fasts by their sole discretion, for any purpose, at
any time in the year.
Based on the above sources, the duration and goals of voluntary fasts
have been studied for the first time. They have been voluntarily kept as
regular, as well as three-day, weekly, nine-day, fourty-day. These fasts had
different aims: marriage, childbirth, recover, to aviod misfortune, to be the
saint's intercessor, to commemorate the deceased, to prepare to pilgrimage,
bringing in remembrance of the deceased, to have some kind of grace and
other goals. Two fasts are more interesting: Vartanants fast, which was kept
during the Barekendan, and the Ascension or the Pentecost fast. This fast was
mentioned in the Church calendar until the XV century, but the whole
process was not mandatory, and after that it was kept in the people as a
voluntary fast.
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