Last weekend, on January 6th, it was Armenian Christmas. You might be asking yourself, why do Armenians celebrate on on this day? According to the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, until the fourth century, all Christian churches celebrated Christmas on January 6th. Then the Roman church decided to move the date to December 25th to override a major pagan feast. The Armenian Church, however, has continued to celebrate Christmas on January 6th.

The UNHCR representative in Yerevan was invited to attend the Christmas service Etchmiadzin, which is the centre of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He had attended previously and thought Jessica should have the opportunity to experience it, so he had the invitation transferred to her.

We inquired if I could also get an invitation, but due to space limitations and my lack of importance, we were told that I would have to stand in the back of the church with the commoners.

Thankfully I was allowed to ride to the church with Jessica in the UNHCR car. We saw several other diplomatic cars during the 20 minute drive, and we got to through a special entrance at the church and park in the row of diplomatic cars.

We arrived 30 minutes before the service was scheduled to start. This gave Jessica plenty of time to hang out with me in the back of the church, but she was in hurry to rid herself of my insignificance, so she immediately went to the front and took a seat with the other important people. So it was with some satisfaction that I saw a priest ask her to take a seat more to the side than the one she had selected. Apparently that section was for even higher ranking people.

We had been warned that the service would be long and crowded, so I was happy to see that it was mostly empty when we first arrived, and only about half full when the service got underway with the procession of priests into the church. Some of the priests carried large flags which people reached out to touch.

One thing that I like about Armenian services is that you are free to wander around the building. Rather than people simply standing quietly, there is also a buzz of activity, as people light candles, kiss icons, and even just chat with their friends in the back. I took advantage of this to wander around myself, sometimes standing close to the choir, sometimes getting as close to the front as I could, and even by taking a lap around the outside of the church, where the music was still audible. Much of the singing is performed by the priests themselves, although there was also a female choir and a few male soloists.

About halfway through the service, the church filled up and it became harder to move around, so I stood in the middle for awhile, before retreating to the back corner, where I spent most of my time watching people light candles.

The sermon was delivered by the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Karekin I, who holds the title of Catholicos of All Armenians. Jessica and the rest of the elites were given a translation, but I guess they weren’t expecting any regular foreigners like me to stick around in the back for the whole time. We were told that the Catholicos can sometimes be quite political, but I read the sermon when we got home and it was fairly mild, with a greeting to “President Bako Sahkyan of the Republic of Nagarno Karabakh” and a mention of how “genocides and cultural destruction have yet to receive their just condemnation.”

After more than two and a half hours, the service finally ended with the procession of priests out of the church. The Catholicos held out his gold cross, and the crowd, including, kids, clamoured to touch it. It was a struggle out of the church as people were still coming in, but after I few minutes I managed to squeeze my way out and find Jessica outside.

Later in the day we both received a text message from Etchmiadzin. I don’t know exactly what it said, but it had the word Christ in it, so I am sure it was about Christmas. It seems probable that this message was sent to every mobile number in Armenia, but I like to think that it was actually a congratulatory message to me for standing through such a long service!