One of the greatest textile artists, carpet designers, and textile restorers, master weaver, Hagop Kapoudjian, (c. 1870-1946), was also a key figure and one of the founding pillars of Homenetmen.
 
    Homenetmen (Armenian: Հ.Մ.Ը.Մ. pronounced [ˈhɔmɛnetmɛn], an acronym in Armenian for Հայ Մարմնակրթական Ընդհանուր Միութիւն, meaning 'Armenian General Athletic Union' is a pan-Armenian diasporan organization devoted to athletics and scouting. Homenetmen’s credo is "Raise Yourself and Raise Others with You…" (Armenian: Բարձրացի՛ր, Բարձրացո՛ւր, Partsratsir Partsratsour). 
 
    Mr. Kapoudjian was the first, and greatest, master of the Kum Kapi school of silk and metal (gold and silver thread) carpets, and a restoration specialist. His family moved to Constantinople (Istanbul) during the persecution of Armenians under Ottoman rule where he studied Persian rugs and soon after, had his own signature style. 

   After WWI, Kapoudjian moved to Paris where he became renowned for restoring knotted carpets and where he worked on several of Gulbenkian’s rare carpet collections. He continued his weaving and repair work in the French capital, and died there.
 
    Kum Kapi was a village of Armenian population wherein pure silk rugs with extraordinary quality were woven in the 19th century. Although it is a fishing village in the present day, Kum Kapı workshops, near the Great Palace of Ottoman Sultans, produced rugs that rivaled the Hereke Imperial Workshops producing woven rugs of amazing quality.

    During the beginning of the 20th century, two master weavers of Kum Kapı and their workshops were active--Hagop Kapuciyan (Kapoudjian), known colloquially as “Rotund (Fat) Hagop” and Zareh Penyamin, the greatest of the Kum Kapı masters.  
 
    Kapoudjian, coming to Constantinople from Kayseri, a central Anatolian town, established his first looms in Kum Kapı where he initially took 16th century Iranian Carpets and rugs with compartments as models, but innovated the designs by adding distinguished features.
 
   Homenetmen was founded on November 16, 1918, in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). The idea of a pan-Armenian sports association had been promoted for a number of years by an avid athlete and soccer player, Shavarsh Krissian, who started publishing the Armenian language sports periodical Marmnamarz, in 1911, with the financial support of brothers Levon and Krikor Hagopian and through the encouragement of Hovhannes Hintliyan, and the writer Hagop Sirouni.
 
    On May 1, 1911, the Armenian Olympiad, Navasartian Games, were launched and in 1912, Hintliyan published a pioneering article in Marmnamarz about Robert Baden-Powell and the scouting movement. Soon, thereafter, a great number of Armenian scouting groups were established. In 1913, the third pan-Armenian Olympiad was held, presided by Komitas, and for the first time a number of Armenian scouts also took part. Armenian sporting activities eventually halted due to the onset of World War I and the demise of Shavarsh Krissian as a victim of the Armenian Genocide.
 
   On November 16, 1918, a formative constituent assembly was held in Constantinople (Istanbul) to launch the "Armenian General Athletic Union and Scouts" by a collective of 7 prominent members--Krikor Hagopian, Levon Hagopian, Dikran Koyian, Carlo Shahinian, Haig Jizmejian, Vahram Papazian, and Jirayr Korasanjian, with the active support of writer Hagop Sirouni.
 
    The pan-Armenian association was recognized as the sole Armenian athletic union on December 16, 1918 with the formation of the first Homenetmen Executive Committee. Four Homenetmen chapters were soon opened in various Constantinople neighborhoods. Vahan Cheraz founded the scouting chapter of the association.
 
    On July 20, 1920, the founding members of Homenetmen were officially invited to the independent Republic of Armenia to share their expertise regarding athleticism and scouting with the Republic's government. The Homenetmen Executive Committee sent Vahan Cheraz, Dikran Khoyan, and Onig Yazmajian to the meeting. Although initially successful in their efforts to spread Homenetmen’s athletic and scouting movement within Armenia, Homenetmen later was banned from Armenia after the Bolshevik takeover of the Free Republic of Armenia and the forced creation of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921.
 
    In 1922, the Homenetmen chapters in Constantinople were also forced to close their doors under Kemalist Turkish persecution, with the organization's leaders being forced into dispersion throughout the world.
 
     Homenetmen, at 100 years, has survived and grown exponentially around the globe and in Armenia, becoming one of the largest and most resilient Armenian organizations in the world. It has consistently produced generations of citizenry of high character, promoting the fine tenets of athleticism, scouting, and activism, Raising Themselves and Raising Others… 

THE RUG FELL ON HER HEAD: AN ARMENIAN CARPET CUTTING CEREMONY
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September 17, 2018 | Micaela Nerguizian

Shortly after the last piece of fringe on the silk-woven rug was snipped off from its loom, the rug fell on her head—a ceremonial rite of passage often compared to cutting the umbilical cord after giving birth. It marks the female transition from girl to woman.

“In Armenian we say glkhin ynkav: it fell on her head. If the carpet falls and covers her head and face, like a veil, within the next year or so she will get married,” explains Hratch Kozibeyokian, a third-generation weaver who studies the symbolic imagery behind Armenian textiles.
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Kozibeyokian, along with other Armenians involved in sustaining and reviving ancient Armenian weaving traditions, led a demonstration on the Armenian carpet cutting ceremony during the last weekend of the 2018 Folklife Festival. They revealed the symbolism and rigorous process behind this communal undertaking, from setting up the loom and tying the first knot to cutting the last piece of yarn.

The silk rug they presented was the second in a series of three that had been woven in Yerevan, Armenia, as part of a training program at the Folk Arts Hub Foundation. Founder Levon Der Bedrossian co-presented the session on the National Mall, sharing the technique and challenges behind the art of silk weaving.

“The silk is a magical phenomenon,” he said. “If you just think, it starts from a moth. Since it is a subtle material to work with, the process is very difficult, requiring a lot of patience and dedication.”  
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That doesn’t mean hours and weeks. We are talking months and years—for one rug. Festival participant Diana Hovhannisyan worked on the rug displayed at this cutting ceremony for about fourteen months, along with her other colleagues. Unlike the first rug in the series, which had about 600 hand-tied knots per square inch, this one consisted of 840 knots. The third, which Hovhannisyan is currently working on, has approximately 1,080 knots per square inch. That’s dedication.
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Camera: Shaun Weber, David Barnes, Emma Cregan, Hannah Luc, Albouri NDiaye, Charlie Weber
Interview and editing: Kaylie Connors

The participants dedicated the ceremony to the American people as a gesture of gratitude from Armenians. It was the one chance visitors had, during the two-week Festival, to experience this rite of passage, giving them a whole new spin on the weaving tradition and its rituals.

But why is it a female and not a male rite of passage?

According to Kozibeyokian, Armenian girls are traditionally exposed to the craft from an early age, observing and assisting their mothers and grandmothers weave carpets, belts, blankets, and other textiles. When a young girl decides to do her first weaving all by herself from beginning to end, her father builds a loom for her, places the warp (longitudinal section), and ties the first foundation. Once she completes the rug (or karpet, a carpet without pile), her father cuts the remains of the foundation that he tied. Traditionally, the completed rug represents the girl’s first accomplishment in her life, preparing her to face the world. 
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If her mother and grandmother are happy with the finished result, they invite friends and family to their home for a day-long celebration filled with song, poetry, and dances. During the ceremony, when the time comes for the father to cut the rug, the girl sits on a chair under the loom (as seen in video) waiting for the rug to, hopefully, fall on her head. If the weaver happens to be older and is already married with children, then she would invite another female friend, who is also married but doesn’t have a child, to sit under the loom. If the rug falls on her friend’s head, then she will have a baby.
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This cutting ceremony and numerous other traditional Armenian weaving practices have been passed down through multiple generations both for home use and to earn a livelihood. Despite the male-dominated commercial side of the weaving industry, female entrepreneurs, such as Ruzanna Torozyan of Goris Women’s Development Resource Center, have succeeded in forging a path and running their own establishments. Torozyan, another Festival participant who took part in the cutting ceremony, founded this co-op as a way to create income opportunities for rural women. They, in turn, are able to pass down their weaving knowledge while reviving and developing local crafts. Not only do they shear the sheep, wash the wool, spin the yarn, and weave the textiles, but they teach and sell their craft, creating unique pieces that combine traditional and contemporary designs.

At the Folklife Festival, visitors developed a new appreciation for these textiles. Not only did the presenters and participants bring awareness to the importance of the ancient Armenian weaving heritage, but they were able to recreate a ceremony that captured the essence of intergenerational social interaction.
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As their celebration came to an end in a culmination of song, poetry, and apricots flying through the air, Kozibeyokian cheerfully proclaimed, “This is just a small taste of what Armenian folklife is about!”

Micaela A. Nerguizian is a production consultant in the performing arts and intern at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. She is completing her graduate degree at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, with a focus on cultural diplomacy and international education. As the great granddaughter of Armenian rug designer Bedros Mozian, writing this piece inspired her to journey back into her family’s history.