2. The Armenian Apostolic church uses the Julian
Calendar and celebrates Christmas on January
6th. The Fast of Holy Nativity starts on the
evening of December 29th and ends on the
Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, most Armenians lay lavish tables on
New Year‟s Eve and celebrate with a lot of food.
Khozi bood (glazed ham) and lots of meat
products leave little chance for the believers
determined to fast. New Year‟s Eve and the
following 3 days are a period of paying courtesy
visits to relatives, respected friends and seating
at the table and tasting the plentiful food.
The table looks like this:
3. The common types of dishes for the New Year's table is dolma, salads,
basturma and sudjukh... of desserts- dried fruits, gata the Armenian paxlava
4. The Christmas holiday season starts on
New Year‟s Eve (December 31st) and
continues until the old Julian calendar‟s
New Year‟s Eve on January 13th.
Christmas Day itself is more of a
religious holiday in Armenia, so the
feasts of New Year‟s Eve are not really
seen as appropriate. The day‟s
traditional food is harisa, fish and red
wine.
With all of this confusion, New Year
becomes Armenia‟s favorite holiday,
while the real Holy Day – the day of
Christmas,
pales
and
becomes
something of a complimentary holiday.
5. On New Year‟s Eve we put up
a Tonatsar (Christmas tree),
prepare gifts for our children,
because Dzmer Pap (or
Kaghand
Pap,
otherwise
known as Santa Clause) with
Dzyunanushik (Snow-white,
Santa
Clause‟s
granddaughter) comes to
Armenia on New Year‟s Eve,
not on Christmas.
6. The root of the problem lies
in our Soviet heritage. The
Communists, who were
atheists in their beliefs,
fought
fiercely
against
Christianity for 70 years.
This
included forbidding Christm
as and encouraging lavish
celebration of New Year as
a replacement. Now, 20
years after Soviets are
gone, we still see the
impact.
7. “Shnorhavor Soorb Tsnund”
it means : „Congratulations for the Holy Birth‟.
Christ is Born and Revealed Great Tidings to you
and us!
Let this year be full of blessings and joy for all of us!