Dear and beloved friends of Western Armenia,
March 21 was the day of the spring equinox. The sky, the earth, and the sea entered a state of labor, a reed stem rose from the sea, it burst into flames, and from that fire Vahagn was born—with fiery hair, a flaming beard, and eyes like the sun. With the birth of Vahagn began the Day of Areg in the Month of Areg—our New Year.
Dear Armenians, congratulations on your New Year, which has been established by the state of Western Armenia as the Armenian New Year. Thanks to the state of Western Armenia.
Every year one may celebrate the New Year, have good wishes and promises about new plans. But for the New Year to become a true rebirth, it is necessary that Vahagn be born within us.
“If Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem and not within you, you would remain eternally lost,” says the famous 17th-century poet and theologian Angelus Silesius.
We must step out of habits and traditions and focus on our inner world. Symbols are important in order to constantly remind us of our true mission, which is the return to the divine kingdom. We must live in such a way that we distance ourselves from the aspirations of the material world, awaken within ourselves a longing for the higher, and let our soul enter a state of labor, so that the birth of Christ or Vahagn may become possible within us—that is, that we may be transformed toward the higher. This is the true union of soul and spirit, the true rebirth.
In this sense, it may also be repeated that Western Armenia is “the field of humanity’s spiritual trial, the place of the embodiment of truth,” where justice and truth must become reality, and the statehood of Western Armenia is the driving force for the realization of that mission.
May our New Year become a stimulus for our inner development—step by step, ensuring constant progress. May Vahagn or Christ be able to be born within us and, consequently, also in Western Armenia, sending a message to humanity toward goodness, toward transformation into light.
Happy March 21.
Masis Injijyan