The Flower Festival Tsaghkazard in Ancient Armenia

The festival of flowers in ancient Armenia, Tsaghkazard, was celebrated according to the ancient sacred calendar of Hayk in the month of Aekan on the day of Lusnak (May 13).

The holiday of flowers was and is a holiday of nature’s prosperity, a holiday of solstices. On the night before the holiday, the constellation of Virgo appeared in the starry sky. It was one of the symbols of goddess Anahit, which means that the holiday had a feminine principle.

According to the ancient tradition, the day before the holiday, girls with jugs went to seven springs and collected seven handfuls of water, seven types of flowers, leaves from seven trees, and seven stones from seven streams.

At midnight, these seven pitchers were left either in the field or on the porch of the house under the open sky, under moonlight and starlight so that their magical power would be transmitted to the water.

In the morning, on the day of the holiday, the girls took a sip of the water, sprinkled the threshold of the house, and poured the rest of the water into a large jug. Then, everyone threw personal items into this jug for subsequent drawing. Each item was assigned a piece of paper with the fate of the person who drew it.

During the day, the houses were decorated with flowers and girls had their heads decorated with flower wreaths. The statue of goddess Anahit was also decorated with flowers by people strolling through the city’s streets.

The Tsaghkazard holiday was carried out with great brilliance not only in houses and on city streets but also in the temples of mother goddess Anahit and goddess Astghik.

Source: Յաւիտեան Խրատ – Հայկեան Սրբազան Իմաստութիւն