Religious holidays
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Easter (Zatik) - is the favourite and the most anticipated holiday in the Christian world. Everybody greets each other on this day: “Christ has arisen” -“Blessed is the resurrection of Christ During the Lent, fasting season of 40 days before Easter, Armenian families put lentils or other sprouting grains on a tray covered with a thin layer of cotton, and keep it in a light place of the house until Easter when sprouts appear. These green sprouts, symbolizing spring and awakening of nature, are the “grass” on which people place colored eggs to decorate the Easter table. To the present day, Armenians have preserved the beautiful biblical lore which refers to red eggs and cheorek (sweet bread): “When Christ was crucified, his mother took some eggs and bread wrapped in the shawl. When the Mother saw her Son crucified and his arms bleeding, she knelt down and cried. The Mother’s tears and Son’s blood dropping on the shawl colored the eggs and bread. Then the Mother put the shawl on her head. Since that day people began coloring eggs red on Easter day and women began wearing shawls when visiting church.
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Holiday of St. Mary - Observed in August. A day devoted to the Mother of God is celebrated on a Sunday falling between the 12th and the 18th of August. The traditional ceremony at this holiday is the annual blessing of the grapes in the church, which coincides with the beginning of the harvest.
Holy Cross (Khachverats) - Observed in September
The Armenian Church celebrates this holiday on the Sunday nearest September 14, which is devoted to the Holy Cross (Surb Khach). This holiday is also serves as a memorial to those who have passed away.
Holy Translators Day (Targmanchats ton) - Observed on October 12.
This holiday is dedicated to the creators of Armenian alphabet Mesrop Mashtots and Sahak Partev, Translators and Interpreters of Bible.
The Armenian alphabet was invented in order to translate the Bible into Armenian and paved the way for the first Golden Age of Armenia. Over the centuries, Armenian writers, philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, have taken inspiration from the Holy Translators’ legacy to achieve excellence in scholarship, creativity, and world acclaim in spite of long periods of devastation, attack, conquest and subjugation.
Palm Sunday (Tsaghkazard) - Palm Sunday (Tsaghkazard) is celebrated one week before Easter and marks Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem as the messiah. The customs observed on this holiday begin with boys and girls dressing in their best clothes. The engaged men of each village uproot a young willow tree and decorate the branches with colored pieces of cloth, fruit and candles.
Purification (Trndez) - Observed on February 14.
According to religious custom this holiday is connected with the idea of coming forward to the Lord with fire, after 40 days of his birth. The Armenian Church celebrates it on February 14th - 40 days after January 6th, from which it derives the religious name: coming forward to the Lord. The main ceremony of is a bonfire, symbolizing the coming of spring.
Saint Sargis - Observed on a Saturday between January 18 and February 23.
St. Sargis is a beloved religious observance and is very popular among young people. It is celebrated 63 days before Easter, on a Saturday falling sometime between January 18 and February 23. On the night of the holiday young people eat salty pies and don’t drink water to encourage dreaming at night. They believe that St. Sargis decides their fate, that the person who gives them water to drink in their dreams will become their future spouse. People also put a plate with flour outside their homes to have a record of St. Sargis’s horse riding through the flour. They believe St. Sargis appears with lightening speed on his radiant horse, and that the traces left on the flour serve as a good omen to bring them luck. In people’s imagination St. Sargis is handsome and appears with a spear, a gold helmet and gold armor.
The Transfiguration (Vardavar (The feast of water))- Observed on June-July
In the traditional Armenian range of holidays, the Transfiguration is the major summer holiday and is celebrated 14 weeks after Easter. In pre-Christian Armenia this holiday was associated with the pagan goddess Anahit, to whose heathen temple the young and the old went on pilgrimage. The word Vardavar has two meanings: “the flaming of the rose” and “to sprinkle with water”. According to legend, the goddess Astghik spread love through the Armenian land by sprinkling rosy water and presenting roses. The god Vahagn kept and protected that love, constantly fighting against evil. This feast was transformed after the adoption of Christianity. On Vardavar in modern times, everybody pours water on one another, starting in the early morning; no one is allowed to feel offended or displeased by mischief on that day.
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