Hetanism

The arevakhach is a symbol used by the Arordiners.
Arordiner priests officiating a ceremony at the Temple of Garni.

The Armenian Native Faith, also termed Armenian Neopaganism or Hetanism (Armenian: Հեթանոսութիւն Hetanosutiwn; a cognate word of "Heathenism"), is a modern Pagan new religious movement that harkens back to the historical, pre-Christian belief systems and ethnic religions of the Armenians.[1] The followers of the movement call themselves "Hetans" (Armenian: հեթանոս Hetanos, which means "Heathen", thus "ethnic", both of them being loanwords from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos)[2] or Arordi, meaning the "Children of Ari",[2] also rendered as "Arordiners" in some scholarly publications.[3]

The Arordiner movement has antecedents in the early 20th century, with the doctrine of Tseghakron (Ցեղակրոն, literally "national religion") of the nationalist political theorist [4][5] Garegin Nzhdeh.[6] It took an institutional form in 1991, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union in a climate of national reawakening, when the Armenologist Slak Kakosyan founded the "Order of the Children of Ari" (Arordineri Ukht).[6] Neopaganism expert Victor Schnirelmann estimated the following of Armenian neopaganism to be "no more than a few hundred people".[7]

  1. ^ Antonyan 2010, pp. 104–105.
  2. ^ a b Antonyan 2010, p. 105, note 4.
  3. ^ Siekierski & Antonyan 2013, passim.
  4. ^ "Nazi collaborator monuments around the world". 27 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Armenian Ruling Party Rebuffs Russian Accusation It 'Glorifies Nazism'".
  6. ^ a b Antonyan 2010, p. 105.
  7. ^ "Christians! Go home”: A Revival ofNeo-Paganism between t e Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia (An Overview). Victor A. Schnirelman (2004). Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol 17 No. 2. Page 208