The Feast of the Holy Translators: Elementary Section

On Thursday, the 13th of October 2011, at 11:30 AM, the students of the elementary section, the teachers and the members of the administrative staff were gathered in the Armenian Catholic Mesrobian High School’s «Farajian» auditorium to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Translators.

The opening speech was made by the director of the extracurricular activities of the school Mrs. Garine Tashjian who mentioned that according to the Armenian calendar of feasts, the Feast of the Holy Translators is celebrated on the 8th of October. As Mesrobian school students, it’s the least we can do by celebrating this day, on the occasion of the 1650th birth anniversary of St. Mesrob Mashdots who invented the Armenian alphabet and started translating particularly the Armenian literature and founded the Armenian school and who was also the first teacher and enlightened master of the Armenians as well as our nation’s public and cultural agent and a Christian preacher.

Then, a group of the elementary section students presented to the audience an artistic program during which the 4th grade students recited greatly the poem entitled «The Armenian Alphabet» by Onnig Panigian. After that, Gacia Levonian, a third grade student, played the flute. Furthermore, the 1st grade students Hagop Terzian and Palig Doniguian recited a poem dedicated to the book and the love of reading.

The artistic program was followed by the speech of Mr. Raffi Demirdjian, the Armenian language coordinator of the school. In his speech, the speaker of the day raised the merits of the Armenian people by mentioning that « many peoples around the world preserve the existence of their nations in different ways. Our people’s best weapon was Mesrob Mashdots. If we hadn’t Mesrob Mashdots and the Armenian language, we wouldn’t have today the Armenian Mesrobian School and we wouldn’t have Armenia, etc.».

Also, by mentioning all the nations who were integrated or were vanished because of not having letters, literature and language, Mr. Demirdjian incited all the students, saying « many of you love the tricolored Armenian flag and Armenia, but before that you must love a lot the Armenian language and speak well your mother tongue. We don’t have the right to not love and to not learn the Armenian language». Consequently, by linking the Translators’ advice to the preservation of the Armenian language, Mr. Raffi Demirdjian said that the Feast of the Holy Translators must be celebrated every day, because « each one of you is obliged to preserve the native language, as did your grandfathers and grandmothers who were living in very bad times and conditions, but they were loving their language and culture and they transmitted it to us by kindly preserving it. Each one of you must become Mesrob Mashdots’s soldier and must learn the Armenian language and the Armenian history, so that when you grow up and go to universities, you can defend your nation’s rights through the knowledge you have acquired and you can defend your nation’s Cause. Honor and respect to each one of you who speaks and loves the Armenian language ».