Today is a holiday in Armenia called Vartavar. The day was originally dedicated to the pagan goddess Astghik, the goddess of water, love, and fertility. The pagan festival was adopted and adapted by Christianity, and now in Yerevan it’s one gigantic water fight. Everywhere. People use buckets, cups and hoses to douse friends, family and complete strangers with water. It is a truly unique event. You can read about it in the Smithsonian Magazine or watch this brief historical video from the Armenian church. It’s such a popular day there are multiple covers of an Armenian pop song called Vartavar.

Paul went to Republic Square at 9 AM and there were firetrucks circling around the square, spraying anyone in their path, setting the tone for the day. Around 11am I went with him to the square with the buckets and water gun we purchased last night, and we spent the next 90 minutes engaging in all the water festivities. Paul joined the dozens of people in the fountain who were filling buckets of water and throwing it on anyone nearby. I did my best to keep up, dousing innocent bystanders, watching people spray the police officers on foot, cars driving by sprayed people out their windows, and we had to watch out for people throwing buckets of water out their upper-story windows. 

We took pictures with the phone and then stored it in a ziplock bag for the rest of the day, leaving it with Raz, who was hanging out at the Marriott. You can’t get close to the main fountain with an uncovered phone because even holding a phone, you are not safe from being doused with water. \

Paul and I grabbed lunch at Tun Lamajo where we had an Armenian cheese plate, a lamejun with cheese and a plain lamejun. They were delicious!

All over the city the water games continued, with privately owned trucks driving through the city spraying bystanders, the fun did not stop. By 4:30pm we were at the hotel pool where they had a DJ, snacks and a general party atmosphere. There’s probably seating for 300 at the pool — it’s a large space.

We saw D briefly today: the boys soaked each other in the square, D gave us laundry that needed a mom’s touch, and tonight the 800+ athletes are attending a dinner and program with revolutionary songs dedicated to the Lisbon 5.

For us, dinner tonight at Tumanyan Khinjaki, a restaurant known for its Georgian soup dumplings (khinkali.) We opted to take a Yandex to the restaurant, even though the restaurant was within walking distance, as we were only ten steps outside the hotel and someone dumped a bucket of water from a balcony just missing Paul and I in the process. Vartavar was still going on at 7:45 PM!

At dinner we were joined by eight others from the North Andover / Chelmsford MA area who timed their vacation in Armenia with the games. We tried steamed and fried soup dumplings, a fried mozzarella stick looking appetizer which was filled with meat and a little cheese, dolma and Armenian hamburgers. The burgers were the best part, the dolma was oily and while I’m glad we tried the dumplings, I won’t be ordering them again.