11:24, 6 January 2020

Armenia: believers celebrate Christmas

Christmas liturgy in a church in Armenia. Screenshot of the video by Arsen Dallakyan https://youtu.be/yhevTrMGRlQ

All the temples of the Armenian Apostolic Church have held holy "Chragalujts" liturgies. Believers bring home candles and lampads, as well as consecrated water, which is considered to be healing.

On January 6, the Armenian Church celebrates the Epiphany holiday, which unites the Christmas and Baptism. This is due to the fact that the Armenian Church did not participate in the Council of Chalcedon in 451, where a separate celebration of Christmas and Baptism was adopted. Other Christian churches celebrate Christmas on December 25/January 7, and Baptism on January 6/19.

"Chragalujts" is translated from Armenian as "lighting lampads and candles". Believers take home with them the lampads and candles lit in the church, symbolizing the divine light.

Today in the morning, the holy liturgy will also be served, after which the rite of blessing the water will be performed in memory of the baptism of Jesus. Believers also take this water home: it is believed that it has healing properties, the "News-Armenia" writes.

The residents of Armenia interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have noted that Christmas for them is not only the church, but also a family holiday. On this day, they lay the table, and there should be fish and wine on it.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 6, 2020 at 05:28 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.