[2] Contemporary church leaders assert that the ritual today is imbued with a new set of religious significance within the canon of Orthodox Christian practice.
[4] Such events are popular in New York City as well as in the sizable Armenian descent population concentrated in Southeastern Wisconsin[5] and Northern Illinois.
Older men from the community dig large pits in the earth the night before the feast, in which the communal pots of pilaf and lamb stew are roasted.
On the day of the festival, which is free and open to the public, the presiding priest blesses the food and asks for God to remember the departed who are being commemorated as part of the Requiem Service.
When such an honored guest is present, feast attendees typically gather around to hear a first-person account of the history as lived in 1915 through the eyes of a child.