Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Khachverats) · Khachverats

Culture of origin: Armenian · Cultural

Holiday sources: Armenian

Khachverats is the last of the Armenian Church's five Tabernacle feasts, kept on the Sunday nearest 14 September (between 11 and 17 September). It celebrates the cross of Christ, which the army of the Sasanian king Khosrow II carried off from Jerusalem in 614 and the Byzantine emperor Heraclius recovered in 628. The processional cross is decorated with basil, the fields are blessed, and the Monday after is Merelots, a day for the dead.