Armenian Christmas and Theophany · Krismas-e Armani

Culture of origin: Armenian · Cultural

Holiday sources: Armenian · Iran

The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the birth of Christ and his baptism (Theophany) together on 6 January. This keeps the original date of Christmas in the East, from before the feast was moved to 25 December. It is one of only six fixed feasts in the Armenian calendar, whose liturgical year turns on the Nativity and Theophany and on the Resurrection, and which follows the fifth-century lectionary of Jerusalem, translated into Armenian in 439. In Iran the Armenian and Assyrian churches may not hold services in Persian or admit converts from Islam, and all churchgoers must register with the government, a UN Special Rapporteur reported in 2014; the churches that held services in Persian have been forcibly closed.