New Year is a time of the year when the “Box of Miracles” opens to grant everyone with love, kindness and dreams. It brings joy and enthusiasm spreading its lovely spirit over people’s homes. In addition to the New Year revelries and the pleasure of exchanging gifts Christian world celebrates also Christmas. Due to the differences of Julian and Gregorian calendars Christmas is celebrated on various days. Catholic Church celebrates Christmas on December 25 according to Julian calendar and the Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 7 according to Gregorian calendar. Armenian Church being the only Apostolic Church in the world celebrates Christmas on January 6. It is interesting that until the 4th century Christians all over the world had been celebrating Christmas on January 6. But even after the adoption of Christianity many nations, especially the Romans, continued to solemnly celebrate the sun worship which fell on December 25. To prevent the pagan traditions the Roman Church declared December 25 the official birthday of Jesus Christ in 336. Later Christmas day moved to December 25 nearly in the whole East and January 6 remained as the day of Epiphany and Christ’s baptism. Adhering to ancient traditions Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates both the holidays of Christ’s Birthday and Epiphany together on January 6. The Orthodox Church begins celebrating the holiday on the
evening of January 6 by the divine service in church and continues the festive ceremonies on January 7.
According to the Armenian Church the week preceding the Christmas celebration is a lent period. People are usually coming out of lent in the evening of January 5 after Divine Liturgy when people take lights from church to their homes as signs of divine light and blessing.
After the Liturgy in church people take part in the ceremony of “Water Blessing” to symbolize the baptism of Christ in Jordan River. And the miraculous water blessed by the Holy cross and sprayed with Sacred Chrism is distributed to people. The lent period ends. But nowadays not everybody follow to the rules of lent as it is impossible to resist to the temptation of Christmas festive dishes. Since ancient times different nations have preserved the traditions of baking various types of bread and pastry. According to the ancient Armenian tradition the ornament of the New Year table is Gata (Sweet Bread). The main pastry of the feasts is round-baked bread called “Tari” (Year) decorated with nuts, walnuts and raisins which are the symbols of prosperity. Armenian women used to put a coin in the paste of the bread while baking. Then in the evening of Christmas they cut the bread into 12 pieces as the symbols of 12 months of the year to give to the members of the family. And the person who finds the coin is to get all the success of the coming year. Customs differ from place to place. For example, the Orthodox people gather around the table of “Holy Supper” which consists of 12 dishes, one to honor each of the Twelve Apostles.
In spite of the custom differences, the holidays of New Year and Christmas are the favorite ones in Christian world. Christmas is considered to be the most domestic holiday which is celebrated in a warm homely atmosphere. This is a period of time when all are happy and hurry to congratulate each other wishing “MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!”