On Thursday, May 21, 2009, The Ladies' Auxiliary held a Hampartsoom party celebrating the ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ on the fortieth day after his resurrection.  The day began with a church service celebrated by Fr. Vahan Gosdanian.

After a scrumptious lunch provided to those in attendance, the feast of the Hamparzoom was explained and recreated, by chairperson Lucille Gahvejian assisted by Nazik Arisian.  This old Armenian folk tradition is a festive day, particularly cherished by young unmarried girls.   Erin Parnagian, who happened to be at the luncheon giving the ladies a preview of our social hall remodeling, also volunteered to help.  As the tradition goes, little amounts of water were fetched from seven springs (in this case, 7 different ladies brought water) and pebbles from seven hills.  These were placed in a large container. Each girl in the village (in this case, the ladies in the audience) placed a small personal item in the container.  The container was blessed by Der Hayr.  As Erin picked out an item at random, the individual, who happened to own the item, came up and a bible verse was read on her behalf. In the tradition, young girls believed that their wish would come true during the course of the year. The process was called VIJAG.

Meher Chekerdemian, who knows the traditional Hampartsoom songs, was kind enough to sing for everyone several of these traditional songs.  These folk songs and folk poems have survived and have been put to print.

The luncheon ended leaving everyone in a good mood.