A major event in Armenia’s cultural life, the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival is taking place in the first half of July in Yerevan.

The temple of Zvartnots is an asset of enormous value as a unique piece of architecture. The composition of the temple is exclusive. Its semantic content is extremely substantial: references to the constellation of Orion, to the Universal Hierarchy, as well as to the Holy Patriarchs, the Founders of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The holiness of the temple location is corroborated by authoritative references incorporated into architectural elements of structures for public worship in other parts of the world.

There are over 30 museums in Yerevan, most of them being under guardianship of the Armenian Ministry of Culture and National Academy of Sciences and almost all of them lacking funds and attention. Low salaries force employees quit.

The Armenian town of Ashtarak is known as the old center of wine-making. There are plenty of monuments evidencing this throughout the place.

The confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not only political. What is going on now is a all-out information and cultural war, which started back in the soviet time.

Saint Valentine’s Day, although not an Armenian national holiday, takes root in Armenia. The romantic tradition to present ‘heart’ gifts is gaining popularity among young people, although majority of them do not have any idea of who Valentine was and why the holiday is celebrated.

Over the past week, cultural life in Armenia and abroad featured a number spectacular events.

As a “worthy” representative of Azerbaijani leadership, Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev disseminated lies about the meetings of the Intergovernmental Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, in Nairobi Nov 15-19.

The second barbecue festival was held in Akhtala, Lori region of Armenia, on Sunday, September 12. It was dated to two other events: re-consecration of Surb Mariam Astvatsatsin Church and inauguration of a monument to wedding rings.

Did you know that the authors of Shrek, the beloved animated comedy, could not bind two plot lines for a long time, that the script was written for over 3 years and that the 90-minute film was created on the basis of thin book with uninteresting plot?