In the sacred calendar of the Haykyan the day of the half moon, May 13, and the day of the Mother Nature. The Goddess: Anahit Ditsamayr. 

54 days after the New Year-Easter on the Sunday of the month of Areg (March 21), the first patronal holiday of the year is celebrated, called Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is a solar celebration of the flowering of Mother Nature. Before the sunrise of the feast, at midnight, the constellation of Virgo, also known as the constellation Spike, appears at the top of the sky. 

It is also the symbol of Anahit Ditsamor, and thus the tone is feminine in nature. According to tradition, on the eve of the festival, the girls go in the morning to collect seven handfuls of water from seven springs, seven kinds of flowers, seven leaves of trees and seven stones from the stream. In the middle of the night, the kettles were left in the field, and later also on the roof of the house, in the open air, in view of the moon and stars, so that they would transfer their magical powers to the water. 

In the morning, they drank a sip of this water, sprinkled it on the threshold of the house and poured the rest into a jug. Everyone threw a personal item of theirs into this jar, then drew lots, took an item out of the jar, and whatever item came out, the fortune read was theirs. During the day, the houses were decorated with flowers, the girls wore flower crowns and walked the streets with a statue of Anahit Ditsamor decorated with flowers. 

Palm Sunday was also celebrated with great pomp and ceremony with national songs and dances in the temples of Anahit Ditsamor and Astghik Ditsuhu.

Kurm Yarut Arakelian