January 6, marks the time of Celebration and Festivity for Armenians

   Shnorhavor nor Dari yev soorp dzenoont

The holidays aren't over yet... as confusion of why Christmas Trees and festive lighting still twinkle through the night.  As I am Native American and Armenian, I celebrate not just the traditional date of December 25th where Saint Nick comes sledding along with a trail of reindeer delivering a bounty of gifts;  but also the traditional celebration of Christmas {Soorp Dzenoont} on January 6th, to my Orthodox heritage and Armenian culture.

This celebration is the events leading to the incarnation of Christ as it is recorded. The Theophany or Epiphany {Astvadz-a-haytnootyoon in Armenian} meaning the revelation of God, is the centralized theme through the season known as Christmas.  Major events that are rejoiced are the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem and Baptism in the River Jordan. The day of this major feast in the Armenian Church is January 6th. A ceremony called "Blessing of Water" is conducted in the Armenian Church to commemorate Christ's Baptism.
Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was not established until the fourth century of the Roman Catholic Church, prior to that  all Christian churches celebrated Christ's birth on January 6th

      

According to Roman Catholic sources, the date was changed from January 6th to December 25th in order to override a pagan feast dedicated to the birth of the Sun which was celebrated on December 25th. At the time Christians used to continue their observance of these pagan festivities. In order to undermine and subdue this pagan practice, the church hierarchy designated December 25th as the official date of Christmas and January 6th as the feast of Epiphany. However, Armenia was not effected by this change for the simple fact that there were no such pagan practices in Armenia, on that date, and the fact that the Armenian Church was not a satellite of the Roman Church. 

When Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, some Armenians rejected the reforms and stuck instead to the old, Julian calendar.  Today Armenians living in the Holy Land still use the Julian calendar to determine their feast days. The Julian calendar is now a full thirteen days ahead of the Gregorian calendar. So, when these Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 6 according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar counts the day as January 19. In the Holy Land of Bethlehem services for Armenian Christians specially take place at the Church of the Nativity on January 19.