On this day, countless Christians have been decorating their home and work environment and have traveled to or from their guests until the end of the New Year's Eve. In general, Christmas and New Year's Eve have been a total of 12 days, with some countries celebrating it for only five days, while others all have 12 days to go on holiday.
Like the Christians around the world, Armenians in Iran are preparing themselves for the New Year in the last days of December. Christians in Iran, which make up more than 97% of the Muslim population, are religious minorities. Iranian Christians are divided into two parts of the Armenians and the Assyrians, which differ in their commemoration of the Christmas epochs. The Assyrians were relatives who lived in the land of ancient Iran and converted to Christianity from the very beginning of Christianity, especially from the first to the third centuries. Like most Christians in the world, they celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ and celebrate it. The Assyrian Christians, from the 25th day of the Christian day, refrain from celebrating the days of fasting and avoiding meat and dairy products. After the coming of December 25th (December 4th), the Assyrians end their fasting and attend church ceremonies with attendance at the church.
They gather in the church and pray and perform the sacrament ceremony by the bishop, instead of the special occasion for the birth of Christ (AS), they see and visit this excuse. The Assyrian religion is on the fourth day of December (December 25th), people will go to the churches to visit and congratulate the Assyrian clerics and tomorrow they will be clerics who visit their fellow believers. Other remarkable points are that, unlike all Christians who consider January 1 as the beginning of the New Year, the New Year is Assyrian in the month of Nissan and at the same time as the 13th Farvardin of Iranians.
If you are curious, you know that Armenian Christmas is a little bit longer than its foreign partners; it starts about ten days later. That is, while most Christians in the world (from Catholics and Protestants to a large group of Orthodox Christians) consider December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ (AS), followers of the Armenian Independent Church receive Christmas on January 6th. Despite this difference, the Christian New Year begins on the very first night of January and comes with its own special ceremony.
This celebration in Iran is becoming more and more popular and worthy for marketing in Iran, and many young Christians begin their celebrations on December 25th. Christmas trees, decorated with red and green ribbons and golden boxes, are displayed behind the showcases of shops and large entrances or hotels in different parts of Iran, including Christian areas. Lots of Christmas decoration stuff is available for marketing in Iran and also they have vast variety of costumers in Iranian market.
The Armenians of Iran, which make up the mainstream of the Christians in the country, are hard at work today to prepare their celebrations and also very active in Iranian market. In the "Ten Armenian Meters" located on Khaje Noor Tehran Street, where the smell of newly-minted coffee always spells people, the shopping Iranian market and warm words are hot for Armenian.
Treated trees along with images of Mary, Joseph and Jesus of Babylon are also seen in the shops of Mirza Shirazi and Nejatollahi streets in Tehran, where many Armenians in Iran live in those areas. Some Iranian Christians celebrate December 25 and January 1 as the New Year. Unlike countries where Christian celebrations are restricted to hotels where foreigners are located, there are no such restrictions in Tehran. As a matter of fact there is no restriction for Christmas marketing in Iran meanwhile there is a lot of money trading in this regard out of Iranian market.
Behind the glass in Iranian market are often shops that are lined with several Armenian youths, the time and place of celebration and live music performance. The best programs are to be found at the "Ararat" Club, where the best Armenian music bands are in addition to setting up a charity market (with special eateries and fine craftsmanship). Two or three nights at the club's indoor salon, which are great celebration and it is not just a music concert. Meanwhile, these apps also have incredible inputs that increase the ticket's zeros each year over Iranian market.
The "Lord" pastry café at the beginning of the villa street is also one of those places in Iranian market where you can enjoy the smell of sweets that are tasty and tempting. Everyone is busy with New Year's purchases. A few hundred meters on the other side, Sanai Street in this winter season thanks to the presence of Santa Claus, artificial green pine, glamor stores and such is colorful and eye-catching. But the real pine fragrance can be felt on the side of it, where, despite the censure of cutting the shrubs of pine trees, it is full of trees that are fastened to their branches with a twine to make them easy to transport for marketing in Iran. Artificial pine trees have a high price in Iranian market, although they hang colored balls, small drums, red and white stripe cubes, ice candles and candles and finally a golden star over it.
On the first day of January, the bells of the churches will sound as the beginning of the New Year; at the very beginning of the 12th, at the same time as the beginning of the Nowruz of the Christians, the Armenian families of the group will enter the church yard. They are in warm clothes; they get to know each other and every acquaintance they are greeting. Young girls and boys have their own circles, and kids are busy rolling out and kidding around.
New Year's Eve celebrations are held every year on the first night of January in the largest and most beautiful church in Iran, the Vank Cathedral, located in the Jaffa Armenian neighborhood of Isfahan.