{"id":42394,"date":"2015-04-05T14:47:27","date_gmt":"2015-04-05T10:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.armgeo.am\/zatik\/"},"modified":"2021-07-29T12:12:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T08:12:55","slug":"zatik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armgeo.am\/en\/zatik\/","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armenians have celebrated many of their holidays in spring and connected the glorification of Gods with springtime agricultural works. The most important of those holidays was “the birth of Vahagn”, which coincided with New Year in ancient times. In spring, people also celebrated the Mother’s day and Armenian Easter.<\/em><\/p>\n

5000 years ago, on the day of the spring Equinox (21st of March), the Sumerians separated the birth of Sun (The God of Sun) and called it zidig\/zitik, zedik\/zetik. That was the only day when the God of Sun ascended from the mountain with two peaks – Masis (\u201cmas\u201d in Sumerian means twin). In Sumerian word zidig\/zitik, zedik\/zetik means “true sunrise” and symbolizes the fact that the equinox is the only day of the year when the Sun rises exactly in the east. In Armenian Zatik\/Zadig was used as a name of the ritual ceremonies, which were dedicated to the spring equinox, and the birth of the god of Sun Vahagn.<\/p>\n

The writers of the Old Testament connected this solar holiday with the supposed exit of Jews from Egypt. However, Christians identified Zatik with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a result, the holiday entered to a foreign environment, got a new meaning, and changed its roots. It came to Armenia along with Christianity and made people forget the true holiday that they had been celebrating for ages. The powerful God of the Sun, rising from the underworld, was identified with the resurrected God. The holiday dedicated to the God of Sun was forgotten, but the name remained in the memory of Armenians thanks to Mesrop Mashtots. While translating the Bible, instead of the word \u201cpaseq\u201d, he used the Armenian name Zatik.<\/p>\n

Article by Hamlet Martirosyan\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n