On January 31, all Armenian Apostolic Churches celebrated the day devoted to St. Sarkis the Warrior, and the St. Hripsime Armenian Apostolic Church of Astrakhan was no exception. The local youth were especially waiting for the holiday. They had eaten the salty cookie the night before and had come to St. Hripsime Church to receive their blessings.

After the blessing of youth, Armenian children and youth of Astrakhan participated in a concert at the local Armenian community’s “Arev” Center. The event included congratulatory remarks by spiritual pastor of the St. Hripsime Church of Astrakhan, Father, Priest Markos Sargsyan and Vice-President of “Arev” Armenian Cultural Center Suren Ajamoghlyan, who shared a story of a time in his life when he was an atheist. The story was linked to St. Sarkis Day. In his prime, when he didn’t believe in the symbol of the day, he ate the salty cookie on St. Sarkis Day. Years after his marriage, he told his wife about the dream that he had seen that night.

It turns out that the house in the yard of which he was given water was the house that his wife had lived in when she was a child.