New Children’s Picture Book Celebrates Armenian Easter Traditions
Carpinteria, CA (February 23, 2015)
As the world reflects on the Armenian tragedy of 1915, Pomegranate Publishing has released a new children’s picture book, Mariam’s Easter Parade, which celebrates the traditions of the Armenian culture. This April marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in which four million Armenian residents are estimated to have died in Ottoman Turkey.
Written by Marianne Markarian and illustrated by Margaret Markarian Wasielewski, Mariam’s Easter Parade is a light-hearted story of young girl who might be too small to help with the Easter preparations, but she is clever enough to celebrate with her own special parade!
“While it’s important to acknowledge and remember the lives lost to the genocide, it’s also important to celebrate the traditions of the Armenian culture, which continues to thrive in a diaspora that extends from the former Soviet Republic to the United States and Canada,” said publisher Marianne McCarthy.
Armenians celebrate the Easter holiday with faith, food, festivities—and egg-cracking contests! The book includes a recipe for dying Easter eggs with onion skins and instructions for the Armenian egg-cracking game.
Markarian is a second-generation Armenian-American who used her grandmother’s life in the “old country” of the Ottoman Empire as inspiration. Her first book, The Pesky Bird, was a ForeWord Book of the Year finalist.
The illustrator is an award-winning artist and member of the Cincinnati Art Club and the Woman’s Art Club of Cincinnati. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Detroit, Cincinnati, Florida, and Chicago. Her vivid pastel illustrations portray the beautiful countryside and colorful dress of the Armenian people in the early 1900s.
The book is available at Amazon.com as well as independent bookstores throughout the country. For more information, visit the company’s website at https://pomegranatepublishing.wordpress.com/.
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Based in Southern California, Pomegranate Publishing is an independent publishing company that explores cultural integrity through books.