Before the celebration of the new year, the Hamazkayin Letters and Literature Specialized Branch in Lebanon came up with the idea of a poetry composition competition held online through the chapter’s Facebook page. They send invitations to the administrators of all Armenian schools in Lebanon, asking them to urge their students to participate.
The thematic inspiration for the competition was a poem by the late, great poet Moushegh Ishkhan, “Letter to Santa Claus.” The poem makes wishes shared by every Armenian individual. The invitation asked students to express their concerns and feelings through poetry. A jury was empaneled. It evaluated the poems on the following criteria: vocabulary, spelling, composition, style, and presentation. The jurors were Hovig Bertizlian, Irma Kasbakian-Dedeyan, Nare Kalemkerian, Nazeli Avakian, and Houri Kochunian-Ghazarian. The names of the students were not shared with the judges.