Armenian Christmas is held on Jan. 6, a tradition established to commemorate both the birth and baptism of Jesus Christ.
The reason Jan. 6 was chosen as the date to commemorate the life of Jesus apparently stemmed from the ancient notion that prophets always died on the same day as their conception and Christ was thought to have died on April 6. Jan. 6 was the day Eastern Christian churches commemorated Christmas until the middle of the fifth century, when they adopted the date of Dec. 25 in order to suppress the older Roman Saturnalia festival. One exception to this adoption was the Armenian Church.
Christmas is referred to as `Surp Dzinunt’ (Holy Birth) and follows 50 days of preparation called `Hisnag.’ Church members are expected to fast during the first, fourth and seventh weeks of these 50 days. Because Christmas is one of the Church’s most religious holidays it is customary to light a purple candle every Saturday at sunset and offer prayers and sing hymns. At home, everything is cleaned from top to bottom, and in the past a priest would come and bless it afterwards. At Christmas Day Mass, worshipers are given holy water to drink, which is believed to contain some of the oil used to baptize Christ. According to the Church’s history, Armenian patriarchs at the time the church began managed to obtain some of the oil used during Christ’s baptism, which is these days diluted with oils from 40 or so plants, bottled and distributed to Armenian churches worldwide. In keeping
with the atmosphere of the holiday, the day after Christmas is spent praying at the graves of relatives.
Some Armenian Christmas traditions were practiced as far back as the fifth century, with food in particular playing a significant role -from special breads, cookies and other desserts that top off roasted lamb.
