436 Notes from Armenia.
The Armenian Candlemas. I now pass on to examine another important Armenian festival, which corresponds almost exactly to the Western Candlemas, and by contrast with the water-festival described above might perhaps be called a fire-festival. As is well known, the Western Candlemas is celebrated on February 2nd, and has the alternative title of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, on the ground that it is forty days after Christmas Day. But there is some reason to believe that the Purification of the Blessed Virgin is really a substitute for the Lupercalia, one of the last of the Roman festivals to disappear. If that were established the Purification has moved backwards in the calendar, for the Lupercalia properly belongs to February 15th. But then the festival of Christmas appears to have moved back from January 6th, which leaves us very nearly where we were before, for this would bring the Purification to February 14th. The Armenian Candlemas, however, is neither February 14th or 15th, but February 13/26, although as to this date, the duality of which is due to the uncorrected calendar, there is not a perfect agreement. Some said it was February 14/27. There is no doubt about its equivalence with our Western Candlemas. The Golden Bough is beforehand with us as to the customs which belong to the festival as the fol- lowing extract will show.
"In the Armenian Church the sacred new fire is kindled not at Easter, but at Candlemas, that is, on the second of February, or on the eve of that Festival. The materials for the bonfire are piled in an open space near a church, and they are generally ignited by young couples who have been married within the year. However, it is the bishop or his vicar who lights the candles with which the young married pairs set fire to the pile. When the ceremony is over the people eagerly pick up charred sticks or ashes of the bonfire, and preserve them at home with a sort of super- stitious veneration." — Golden Bough, ii., 249.
