Armenian Christmas Food: What's on the Table on January 5 and 6

Armenian Christmas food comes in two meals. On the evening of January 5, families break the Christmas fast with Khetum, a light supper. On January 6, the table is richer, and fish is the centerpiece.

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What is Khetum?

Khetum is the Christmas Eve supper, eaten on the night of the Jrakalouyts liturgy. It follows a week of fasting, the last of the fasting weeks of Hisnak, the Armenian Advent. So the menu is deliberately light.

The Food Heritage Foundation in Beirut lists the dishes many families serve:

• Fish, an early symbol of Christianity.
• Nevik, Swiss chard cooked with chickpeas.
• Tanapur or spas, a yogurt soup with wheat or barley.
• Dried fruits and nuts.
• Sharots, whole walnuts threaded on a string and coated in grape jelly.
• Anoush abour, a sweet pudding of wheat with dried fruit.
• Wine.

Recipes vary from family to family and region to region, so no two Khetum tables look quite the same.

What do Armenians eat on Christmas Day?

After the January 6 liturgy and the Blessing of Water, families sit down to a fuller meal. The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage describes fish, usually trout, served with rice pilaf and raisins. Red wine is poured alongside it.

In the diaspora, the table often takes on the local kitchen too. Lebanese-Armenian families, for example, may add hummus and tabbouleh to the Christmas Day spread.

Anoush abour: Christmas or New Year?

Both, depending on the family. Anoush abour, also written anoushabour, means sweet soup. It is made from wheat berries or barley, sweetened and filled with dried apricots, raisins and nuts.

The Armenian Institute in London calls it the Armenian New Year pudding. Other families serve it at Khetum. Our post on how Armenians celebrate New Year covers the rest of that season.

Why lavash belongs on the table

Lavash, the thin flatbread, sits on almost every Armenian table, holiday or not. In 2014, UNESCO inscribed it on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

UNESCO describes women working together to knead, roll and stretch the dough, then bake it against the wall of a clay oven.

More on Armenian Christmas

To understand why the feast falls on January 6 in the first place, read why Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 6. Designs for the season are in our Armenian Christmas gifts collection.