Salty cookies for the sweethearts: Armenian youth welcome St. Sarkis holiday tonight

By Lilit Arakelyan
Armenia Now intern
The Feast of Saint Sarkis the Capitan, which is one of the most beloved holidays among the youth and sweethearts, is celebrated on February 4 this year. Traditionally the day before the feast young people eat salty cookies and await the appearance of their future bride or bridegroom in their dream giving them water to go with the salty treat.
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“On the night preceding the feast of Saint Sarkis, young women place a tray full of gruel before the door believing that while passing near their door at dawn Saint Sarkis will leave his footprint on the gruel symbolizing the fulfillment of their dreams. And as for salty cookies, they started guessing what the glass by which their future spouses gave them water looked like and how much water it contained,” says Hamlet Petrosyan, Head of the Department of Cultural Studies at Yerevan State University.

In paintings Saint Sarkis is depicted on a white horse, with a spear in his hand and wearing a waving cape, which is the symbol of his being in a hurry to help and intercede for sweetheart couples. This is a feast which symbolizes the belief in happiness for many single young adults.

“The most important thing is to ask for Saint Sarkis’ intercession and to pray with a conscious faith, and not simply to eat a salt cake,” says Clergyman of Holy Trinity Church in Yerevan Ter Yesayi Artenyan, who speaks about religious and ethnographic meaning of the Saint Sarkis holiday. “The spiritual idea of the holiday is to teach young people that love is an emotional state, which needs devotion, self-sacrifice and it gives happiness in return.”

Unprecedented festive events will be held in “Lovers’ Park” in Yerevan on February 4 to celebrate the most favorite holiday among youngsters, and all churches bearing the name of Saint Sarkis will serve a Divine Liturgy and hold a ceremony of blessing of the youth.

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