Burying the red apple

Yes we finally did it and gave a symbolic end to a thousand year tradition imposed on Armenian women to keep their bodies and sexualities under control.

For those who are not aware about this tradition, here is a brief description: the “red apple ritual” is a tradition to prove to the immediate family, the in-laws, the neighbours, close and extended families and relatives, co-workers, teachers, friends, acquaintances that the new bride was in fact pure and a virgin. The ritual consists of the bride’s family and in-laws visiting the newly weds after their first night as a married couple, to insure that everything was “ok”. By”ok” we mean that the bride was a virgin and the new husband is satisfied with his choice. Then the celebrations starts; food, drinks and of course red apples are offered as a symbol of the bride’s virginity to the guests and relatives and whoever is present to ensure that the tradition is kept, that the bride is a virgin and the future of the nation is secured. In some regions a piece of physical proof is sometimes demanded; a bloodstained sheet shown to the mother in-law, for example.

And almost a month ago, on March 8th, the international day of women, while most of the post-soviet republics including Armenia, were distributing flowers to their women and girls, inviting them to supper or offering chocolates and celebrating beauty and motherhood day. We, the crazy people at the Women’s Center, decided to walk down the streets with big posters stating “ Women don’t need flowers and chocolates on March 8, they need rights, equal opportunities and a life without violence!!” and inviting people to the burial of the Red Apple.

After a hectic walk, with police stopping us three times, wondering what we were up to and letting us go after interrogation, and some conservative young men harassing us and mocking our march, we finally started the ceremony of the burial. The place was prepared in the backyard of our centre; the women and some men gathered and started digging the grave where the red apples will rest eternally. One of our members was playing traditional burial music on her flute to accompany the ritual. We were happy, chanting, celebrating the end of a tradition oppressing us and controlling our right to our own body. Another member read a eulogy of the red apple that she had prepared, relating the story of the tradition and its meaning in the Armenian society and stating the importance of this historic event. After burying the last Apple, we gathered around the grave and discussed our personal perceptions of the event.
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This was not easy, we received a lot of threats and criticism from groups of people mainly conservative young men (who even threatened to come and help us in loosing our virginity or called us whores and sluts or traitors) For the past couple of weeks, just reading the comments on some of the blogs run by these conservative groups gave me the chill. But who said it was easy to change things? Yes we took some precautions; we started locking the centre’s door. We started watching behind our backs to see that nobody was following us… fearing that some bad thing will come out from all of this. We were everywhere, in the media, on the radio and TV. And then we had also groups of girls stopping us on the streets smiling, telling us we did the right thing and that they support us but were too shy to join our march.

So we buried the Red Apple on March 8 in Yerevan, now we need to share the good news with the rest of the country!

For more info and coverage of the Red Apple Burial Ceremony, visit the following sites:

http://frontlineclub.com/blogs/onnikkrikorian/2009/03/burying-the-red-ap...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB5uSaTBGdI&feature=channel_page

http://jezebel.com/5170699/like-a-virgin-armenian-in%20laws-want-to-see-...
http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/international-womens-day-2...

http://ditord.com/2009/03/10/tradition-gone-wild-the-red-apple/