How Armenians Celebrate New Year: Kaghand, Gata and Dzmer Papik

For many Armenian families, New Year's Eve is one of the biggest nights of the winter. The table is set on December 31, the doors stay open for days, and Christmas follows on January 6. Here is where the traditions come from and how they carried into the diaspora.

Kaghand: a name from the Latin calends

The Armenian name for the New Year holiday is Kaghand, or Gaghant in Western Armenian. According to the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, it comes from the Latin kalendae, the first day of the month. The medieval scholar Anania Shirakatsi used kaghand for the first day of a month.

The same article says Armenians apparently moved the start of the year to January 1 under Catholicos Simeon Yerevantsi in 1774. This is a different occasion from Navasard, the first month of the old Armenian calendar, which we wrote about in August.

Dzmer Papik and Gaghant Baba

In Armenia the New Year gift-bringer is Dzmer Papik, Grandfather Winter. The Mirror-Spectator notes that Western Armenian communities knew a figure called Gaghant Baba.

The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage describes gifts arriving on New Year's Eve. In traditional homes, children find them under their pillow.

What goes on the table

• Anoushabour. A sweet wheat pudding with dried fruit and nuts, often topped with pomegranate seeds. The name means "sweet soup," as the Mirror-Spectator's recipe explains.
• Gata. A round sweet bread, often baked with a coin hidden inside. Its round shape stands for the completed year.
• A full holiday spread. The Smithsonian adds tarehats, a New Year's bread with a trinket hidden inside, along with ham, stuffed cabbage, cheeses and cured meats.
• Dried fruit and nuts. Houshamadyan's record of Harput describes children waking to stockings of raisins, walnuts, figs and sheets of dried apricot.

Open doors for a week

In Armenia, New Year is a season of visiting rather than a single night. EVN Report describes doors staying open from New Year's Eve and for seven days after, as friends and relatives move from house to house. Siblings start their rounds at the eldest sibling's home. Shutting the door to guests carries a sense of shame.

Older Western Armenian customs had their own charm. In village homes, boys crossed the flat roofs and lowered bags down the chimneys, singing for sweets, nuts or coins. In Harput, every guest gave sweets to the children.

New Year in the diaspora

In the United States, Armenian New Year's Eve dinner-dances grew common, while Christmas on January 6 stayed a church occasion. Anoushabour was already in Armenian-American kitchens by the 1950s. The Mirror-Spectator points to a 1955 Detroit Free Press feature on the dish.

Why Christmas comes after New Year

The Armenian Church still celebrates the Nativity on January 6, the date all churches kept until Rome moved Christmas to December 25. The Armenian Prelacy explains that the feast marks the Nativity and Christ's Baptism together. Armenians in the Holy Land follow the Julian calendar, so their Christmas falls on January 19.

The Smithsonian describes the holiday season in Armenia running from December 31 to January 13. New Year opens it, and Christmas follows within the week.

Bringing it home

If you are hosting this year, the Armenian Christmas mug with a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year print covers both dates in one gift. The Armenian Christmas Gifts collection has throws, pillows and wall hangings for the season. For gift ideas tied to January 6, see our Armenian Christmas gift guide.