Though the “michink” was on Wednesday, when a special ceremony was held in "St. Boghos" church, in the presence of a large number of compatriots and the students of "Haratch-K. Gulbenkian" schools, the feast of the Women’s Association was scheduled on Friday, 29th of February at 1:00 PM, in restaurant “Arev”.

 
After a prayer by Rev. Father Ashod Karakashian, Prelate Norayr Ashekian was invited to convey the message of the day. Talking about “Michink” he said, “Michink” is not a religious celebration, it is a national and popular tradition that has been transferred to us from our ancestors.

They celebrated the middle of the fasting period by preparing different kinds of food free of animal products”. He continued, “Traditions are one of the fundamental means to guarantee the survival of a nation”.

 
Miss Dzaghig Stamboulian conducted the feast in a joyful atmosphere, beside the amazing bouquet of Armenian songs played by the D.J. Boggy.

After the lunch, boiled wheat was served to keep the old tradition going .

Among the different activities organized by the LOKH "Aghtamar" Chapter during the last month was a lecture by Mrs. Shake Yakoubian about the "Importance of our mother language throughout the history and its current status".

For more than an hour, Mrs. Yakoubian briefly spoke about the Armenian history then presented the different stages of our Language development.

 The chapter also organized a "Gastronomy Session" for our women having as instructors Mr. & Mrs. Avo and Marie Der Stepanian, who taught our participants the art of appreciating, preparing and eating food properly.

Through the relentless efforts of "Mousa Ler" Association of the L.A. and San Francisco amount of 10000 U.S $ was raised for the LOKH "Aghtamar" Chapter, which in its turn helped to supply "Mazout" for more than 90 families in our village.
For the soul of late Mrs. Marie Jouharjian, her relatives have donated amount of 2000  U.S $ to the "Filhanessian" center to cover the expenses of a new heart examining machine.
Also, Dr. Garo Ourfalian from U.S. has donated the belongings of his dental clinic of Anjar to LOKH "Aghtamar" chapter.

The  LOKH "Aghtamar" executive expresses its immense gratitude to the sponsors and to all those who are supporting the chapter to accomplish its mission in serving our community.

On Sunday 24th of February, a big crowd was gathering in the Arm Catholic Church of Anjar to commemorate the "Vartanank" and February Rebellion by the presence of the three pastors, representatives of the ARF "Garmir Ler" Committee and members of the different associations.
On behalf of the Organization Council of the "Garmir Ler' Commitee, Ms. Lousig Der Kalousdian made the opening words evaluating the immortality if these historic events and their importance in the survival of the Armenian Nation.
Then, the choir of the Arm. Evangelical Sec. School conducted by Mrs. Negdar Palazian performed three songs, after which the first speaker of the day, Rev. Sebouh Terzian was invited to convey his message.

Rev. Terzian spoke about the importance of the heroes of the "Vartanans" battle, who were the main motive to all the warriors of the other battles fought for the sake of our nation's survival. The speech was followed by a poem recited by a student from the Arm Catholic School.

The second speaker of the day was Mr. Shahan Kandaharian, the director and the chief editor of the "Aztag" daily newspaper, who was invited to talk about the February rebellion.

Mr. Kandaharian conveyed his message by saying that  inspirations of the February form the base of the Armenians survival, which are not only just political and historical events accumulated over time but the pledges that can not be inverted.

The commemoration ended with the prayers of the three pastors.

The cultural committee of the Hamazkayin "B.Sevag" Chapter has organized a musical eve on Friday 22nd of February in the "Mousa Ler" Hall.

The musicians on this eve were not any visitors from outside of the village but our talented junior artists, who had either began their musical pathway recently or they had already started few years ago.

Here are our young artists, who played on different musical instruments for an hour brining pride to their parent and joy to the audience.

Atamian Naroy, Taslakian Ani, Batouzian Sela, Aintabian Laury and Palazian Maria on Piano.

Kendirjian Vartouhi and Kalinjian Hagop on guitar.

Batouzian Serla and Kerkezian Helena on Violin.

Lale Andonian on flute. 

With our deep sorrow we inform you the sudden death of Mr. Antranig Boursalian, that happened in his home in Beirut, on Thursday 21st of February.

The funeral service took place on the next day, at 2.00pm in the "St.Paul" Church, Anjar.  Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

On Saturday 16th of February, Mr. & Mrs. Raffi and Varteni Demirian were blessed with their first child, a baby boy Garod. Congratulations...

Though the past few days were somehow warmer than the past week, but it seems that the spring seems far away to come this year.
Heavy rains have been falling in Anjar in the last few days, while snow fell on the picks of the mountains, causing a very chilly weather around.

                                     
Although this year we are not going to face any water problem but our villagers are praying for an early spring not because they got bored of the winter, but to get rid of the fuel expenses used in getting heated, when the price of mazout soared to 23000LL/20liters.

On Friday 15th of February, Mr. George Apelian was invited by the Cultural Committee of the Hamazkayin "B. Sevag" Chapter to give a lecture about the latest inventions of 2007.

For more than an hour, the attendants were carefully listening to Mr. Apelian while he  was talking about the latest inventions of cars, airplanes and communication.

Despite the rainy and the freezing weather, our compatriots gathered in the "St. Paul" church on Wednesday, February 15th to attend the Holy Mass held for the "Diarentarach" Holiday and light the holy fire taking a part of its light to enlighten their spirits and houses with that holy fire.

With our deepest sorrow we inform you the death of our compatriot, Mr. Hratch Kendirjian (64 yrs.) that happened on Wednesday 6th of February, after suffering from illness for a long period of time.

The funeral service took place on the next day, at 2:00pm in the "St.Paul" Church.
Our deepest condolences to his family and relatives.

Our compatriots not only enjoyed the nature's beauty covered with the white coat but also they wanted to add some artistic touch to raise up its gorgeousness by building up snowmen on their own special way.

Here are some of the snowmen which were build by our talented compatriots Mr. Raffi Andonian and Mr. Vahe & Hovnan Dukenjian with an interactive and an artistic way.

"Paregentan, Paregentan...Amen Goghm Timagner Gan" (It's "Paregentan", masks are all over the place). The sentence that we have been hearing for the past few days in the streets, which were full of groups of disguised children going into every house to play "Mimmendoush".

Pari Paregentan Amenoun...

As we had informed you, heavy rains and snow hit Lebanon and especially the Bekaa valley during the last week, which was announced a disastrous zone. The worst snow storm in 15 years covered most of the Bekaa valley in the late night of the 30th and the morning of the 31st of January, causing irreversible damage to the early agricultural season.

 
Many villages were isolated for days, waiting for the Lebanese Army units to reach them with bread and medicine.
 

 
Though Anjar was not isolated like the other villages but the polar storm, charged with heavy snows covered our village with 50 to 75 cm of snow.

Take a look to some wonderful pictures of our village covered with the white coat.