Armenian Christmas

[HyeJinx1984]

I'm tired of calling it that, what is the actual name of the holiday that takes place on January 6th?

[ArmoBarbi]

It is the actual Christmas for the Eastern Orthodox Church. I dont know what its called in Armenian, in Russian its called Rojdestvo.

[ckBejug]

January 6th = Epiphany

January 6th is Epiphany, also known as the day of the three Wise Men/Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. According to the legend based on the Bible story, the three Magi saw, on the night when Christ was born, a bright star, followed it to Bethlehem and found there the baby Christ, Mary's child, and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (The twelve days of Christmas, as in the song, start on December 25th and end with the Epiphany, which is on January 6th.)

[angelik22]

wow thanx bejug that was awesome- good to know the details behind the story itself abrees

[IAmMadAtAC]

January 6th = Epiphany

The twelve days of Christmas start on December 25th and end with the Epiphany, which is on January 6th. January 6th is also known as the day of the three Wise Men/Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. According to the legend based on the Bible story, these three Magu saw, on the night when Christ was born, a bright star, followed it to Bethlehem and found there the baby Christ, Mary's child, and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Ironically according to the Bible story the Magi followed the star to Nazareth and ended up at Jesus's home when he was about 2 years old. How this whole Epiphany thing even started I have no idea.

[ckBejug]

Ironically according to the Bible story the Magi followed the star to Nazareth and ended up at Jesus's home when he was about 2 years old. How this whole Epiphany thing even started I have no idea.

Indeed...

Matthew 2:1-2,7,9 says "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east, and have come to worship Him. ... Then Herod secretly called the magi, and ascertained from them the time the star appeared ... the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was"

The Magi first saw the star at the time of Christ’s Birth, then they saw the star long after Jesus was born and arrived at the house of Jesus, probably when Jesus was about one. Which is why I mentioned the legend based on the Bible story. At any rate we, Armenians, consider January 6th to be the true day Christ was born. Obviously, the exact date of Jesus' birth is a mystery. About the best we can do is to narrow it down to seasons. The Bible does give us one clue. The shepherds were in the fields with their flocks on night when Jesus was born. This clearly indicates that Jesus was born during the warmer seasons. During the coldest months like December or January, the shepherds didn't sleep in the fields but would bring their flocks inside with them. Pretty much all scholars agree that December 25 is not the birth date, not even the month that Jesus was born.

[ArmoBarbi]

So we are suppose to call it Epiphany instead of Christmas?

[angelik22]

um christmas is the 25th..epiphany is on the 6th....

[IAmMadAtAC]

Pretty much all scholars agree that December 25 is not the birth date, not even the month that Jesus was born.

The part you said about the seasons is true, Jesus was probably born around June or something. The reason December 25 developed is the Romans already had a holiday then, Saturnalia, and so to help fit in to the society Christians would celebrate their God around the same time as to look less suspicious. They could pretend to celebrate Saturnalia while actually celebrating Christmas. Eventually as Christianity replaced the Roman gods the celebration of Christmas replaced it all together and that's how we came to celebrate Christmas at that date in Western Christianity.

[ckBejug]

The part you said about the seasons is true, Jesus was probably born around June or something. The reason December 25 developed is the Romans already had a holiday then, Saturnalia, and so to help fit in to the society Christians would celebrate their God around the same time as to look less suspicious. They could pretend to celebrate Saturnalia while actually celebrating Christmas. Eventually as Christianity replaced the Roman gods the celebration of Christmas replaced it all together and that's how we came to celebrate Christmas at that date in Western Christianity.

As well as because the Pagan celebration for the Sun god (I think that's the one) was on December 25th. In order to wean people off pagan holidays they decided December 25th would be celebrated as Christmas instead.