The American University of Sharjah holds the “Global Day” yearly, as a chance for all individuals from the student body to represent their relative ethnicities, countries, traditions, and culture. People from all around the UAE attend this event as a way to show support to their relative countries and pavilions.
The Armenian Cultural Club has been taking part in this prestigious event since Spring of 2009, which is the semester in which it was founded. The main goal of this club was to show the AUS body that there are Armenian students who are willing to represent their culture proudly. Moreover, this club presented a bridge through which we, as Armenian students, could tell the university as a whole about the Armenian history, present, and especially inform them about the Armenia Genocide. Every year, a pavilion is designed and constructed by the Armenian Cultural Club to represent a certain aspect of the rich Armenian Culture. This year, our pavilion represented the “Sardarabad” monument, with a back view of the beautiful Ararat and the historical “Khor Virab”. Moreover, the pillars from the “Zevartsnots Ruins” were added to give it an effect of the great Armenian history. In this way, our victory and independence, our beautiful nature, and our authentic history were gathered in a descriptive pavilion.
Regarding the activities, a photo shoot was available for visitors with immediate print-out photographs which include a Sardarabad and Ararat background. Plus, traditional Armenian food was offered to all visitors such as: Merchnapoyn, Sarma, Each, and many more. Also, Henna was used to write visitors’ names in Armenian letters which attracted many people from different cultures. Lastly, souvenirs were sold to the guests with “HAY” written on them, as well as the Armenian Cultural Club logo. The Ohanessian Armenian Weekly School sponsored us with t-shirts which were also given out to students and visitors; their support was greatly appreciated.
In addition, the Armenian Cultural Club also participated with a performance to reflect Armenia’s rich culture. This performance consisted of a 5-minute dance on the melody of “Sardarabad” by Ara Kevorkian. This dance was preceded by the “Dle Yaman” song, which was sung by Arabs. This in itself brings us pride as we have helped non-Armenians get introduced to and actually perform Armenian dances and songs. Great feedback was received about the performance, and especially regarding our famous “Dle Yaman”.
More than 50 Armenians visited us this year, including students from the Ohanessian Armenian Weekly School. We would like to thank them for their great support and we hope that in the future, this will be continued.
President and Founder of the Armenian Cultural Club
Salpy Babikian
