Today is the Christmas Eve in Armenia, NewsArmenia reports. A special solemn service called Chrakaluytsa ('Firing of lamps') is held this day. The light of the laps symbolizes the light of the Bethlehem star that led the kings to newborn Christ.
Armenian Christmas is held on Jan. 6 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.
“I congratulate the entire Christian world on the New Year and I hope for peace for the whole world,” Turkey’s Deputy Armenian Patriarch Archbishop Aram Atesyan told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
Christmas Eve in Armenia
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