On November 20, the Russian city of Astrakhan hosted the second annual Miss Armenian of the Russian Federation beauty pageant.

The beauty pageant is not like ordinary beauty pageants. The pageant is not based on the principle of 90/60/90, but on the display of the traditions that a multilaterally developed Armenian lady and child of an Armenian family has preserved.

According to the pageant’s organizing director Gohar Muradyan, living abroad and becoming integrated into a given foreign society, Armenian girls need to preserve the Armenian language and traditions since they will be educating an Armenian generation when they become mothers.

In the initial stage, the organizers select Armenian girls from different cities of the Russian Federation. In the final stage, the girls travel to Astrakhan a week before the pageant and participate in several events. During the tours, the girls visit the Saint Hripsime Armenian Church, the Mesrop Mashtots Armenian Sunday School of the Church, the Arev Armenian Cultural Center and the office of the local representation of the Yerkrapah Union of Volunteer Land Defenders.

This year’s pageant has gathered girls from 8 cities across the Russian Federation. The audience was surprised by not only the level of readiness of the talented girls, but also the jury, one of the members of which was surprisingly Mihran Harutyunyan, medalist of the Greco-Roman wrestling tournament at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Among other members was makeup artist for Russia’s First Channel Polina Hakobyan.

Based on the results, Margarita Avagyan of Kislovodsk won the pageant and performed the Armenian dance “Mokats Harsner” in the “creative number” category.

The event left a great impression on the Armenians of Astrakhan, as well as guests from Moscow and the members of the jury.

Lusine Sargsyan

Astrakhan

Source: Hayern Aysor