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After a second exhausting day under the hot sun, our hardy campers and staff awoke this morning looking forward to Easter celebrations, Hye Camp Olympics competition, and the promise of cooler weather for the remainder of camp. All points held true, including a significant reduction in temperatures that made our Wednesday much more pleasant.
Following breakfast, Fr. Tavit Boyajian led our morning services and spoke about the desire to seek peace with God. As we seek our peace with God through Jesus Christ, we spread the light of Jesus everywhere we go. He also stressed the importance of embracing one’s faith and the glorious gift of God during our lifetime, and encouraged everyone to explore and challenge our spiritual thoughts. Of course, the refrain of “Krisdos haryav ee merelotz!” - “Orhnyal eh harootiunun Krisdosee!” resounded throughout the Easter morning as we celebrated the resurrection of the Jesus Christ.
As all of the campers rotated through their morning classes, one of the highlights was making crosses in arts and crafts. Cousins Maria and Brent Palaian, as well as Paulina Reizian, helped all the campers form clay Khatchkars. Not only did they form beautiful and exquisite designs, but they were also able to inlay various decorative pieces to make their Khatchkar sparkle and shine.
Lunch was a special time, with a home blessing ceremony performed complete with spectacular choreg handmade by the St. Gregory’s, Chicago Women's Guild. As all of the campers gathered around the head table, Fr. Aren, Fr. Tavit, and Fr. Yeprem blessed the bread, water and salt, as well as the dyed Easter eggs that were laid out before them.
After eating lunch, the blessed dyed eggs were distributed to all the cabins to start an Easter Egg cracking contest. The little hint of Armenian food was only a teaser to the bountiful feast we would be consuming in the evening.
Following lunch, after all the classes were over, the 4th Annual Closest to the Pin contest was led by camp Godparent John Nercessian. Fun prizes went to the boy and girl winners from each age group. As the afternoon sporting activities began to wind down, a new presence was felt on the camp grounds. The Knights & Daughters of Vartan Avarayr Lodge from Chicago brought shish kebab dinner, along with salad and pilaf made by the St. James Women’s Guild from Evanston, and treated the camp to an amazing Easter feast that no Armenian could resist. A special thanks is due to everyone from the St. Gregory’s and St. James parishes from all of us at Hye Camp.
Immediately following dinner, the eight Hye Camp Olympics teams were combined into two opposing forces for a game of capture the flag. Led by the current Hye Camp Olympics leading Team Purple Hyes, the combined Red team managed to find, capture, and recover the Blue Team flag and earn first place points for the event. The next Hye Camp Olympics event will be the relay races run on Friday afternoon.
The evening activities continued with a “Hot Topics” session with Fr. Aren. Campers got a chance to get their burning theological questions answered. A broad range of topics were covered, including differences between the Armenian Orthodox faith and other major religions as well as other concerns of sin, punishment and praise in the eyes of God.
Following Hot Topics, everyone gathered around a big bonfire, with smores and the Hye Camp Band led by Fr. Tavit and including Harry Kezelian as well as brothers Dan and Jeramiah Newman. Many smores were eaten, many songs sung, and many tales told as the night grew old. Finally, as the embers of the fire began to simmer, Hye Camp went to sleep and Easter at Hye Camp had passed.
The memories of this celebration will last a lifetime. In concluding his remarks at dinner, Fr. Aren announced he had some good news and bad news. First the good news, we had already experienced over half of Hye Camp 2006. However, the bad news was that over half of Hye Camp 2006 had gone by. The last three days have been amazing, and we don’t want it to end. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has to offer!!!
