Today is Ascension Day (videos)

The Armenian Apostolic Church is commemorating today the bodily Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven.

It is one of the church’s movable feasts celebrated on a Thursday coinciding with the fortieth day of Easter.

The Armenians have had beautiful customs associated with this day. The legend says that the Ascension Day is also a holiday for lovers, and is traditionally followed by a magic night that sees a meeting and a warm hug between two loving stars. The universe is believed to stop at the moment when stars kiss each other; people are encouraged at this instant to express their desires which are sure to come true. After the hug, plants begin to tell one another what cure and remedies each of them can have, and early in the morning women go to the valleys to pick up herbs.

The main ritual began after groups of seven young ladies returned with flower bunches to hold a drawing. They also brought water from seven different springs, leaves from seven flowers and stones from the banks of seven rivers. While making the bunches, the ladies commonly sang, laughed and chattered to each other. Then they brought a jug filled with different items (commonly things made of gold) to start the drawing. The luckiest was believed to be the one whose item was drawn out the first.