Orthodate
Open Orthodate

Orthodox weddings

The Armenian Apostolic wedding service

An Armenian wedding is the psak, the crowning, and it has two things no other church does: the couple’s foreheads are brought together under a cross, and a red and green cord is blessed and placed around their necks.

Create your profile

No ads · Delete everything in one tap

What is different here

The same rite, celebrated this way

The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the Oriental Orthodox churches, served in North America by dioceses of Holy Etchmiadzin and by prelacies of the Great House of Cilicia. This church is Oriental Orthodox and is not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox churches.

The Armenian Apostolic Church is Oriental Orthodox, which means it is not in communion with the Greek, Russian, Antiochian or Serbian churches. The division dates to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and it is about the language used to describe Christ, not about anything a couple will notice in a building. But it does mean that the Armenian wedding is its own rite rather than a translation, and a guest who has been to a Greek wedding should not assume they know what is coming.

The Armenian word for a church wedding is psak, which means crown, so the naming instinct is the same as the Greek, Russian and Romanian one: the service is called after the crowning. There is an engagement service, nshanadrutyun, which may be celebrated separately and earlier, and which is the point at which the rings are blessed.

In the crowning itself two moments belong to this church and to no other. The couple are crowned and then brought forehead to forehead, and the sponsor holds a cross above their joined heads while the blessing is said. And a cord called the narod — braided from red and green thread, blessed by the priest — is placed around the necks of the bride and groom. The colours are commonly explained as the blood of Christ and the new life given through him, and the cord is worn after the service rather than removed with the crowns.

The service is celebrated in Classical Armenian, Grabar, which stands to modern Armenian roughly as Chaucer’s English stands to ours. Armenian sacred music is its own tradition, notated in a system of neumes called khaz, and the sharakan hymns sung at a wedding are unlike anything in Byzantine or Slavic chant.

  • Kavor, and kavorkin

    Said kah-VOR

    The kavor is the godfather of the wedding, and the role is substantial. He holds the cross above the couple at the crowning, he stands with them through the service, and afterwards he holds a continuing place in the household that is closer to the Greek koumbaros than to a best man: the kavor is consulted, invited, and expected. His wife, the kavorkin, shares the role. The kavor must be a baptised member of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and families often choose someone a generation older than the couple precisely because the role is meant to outlast the wedding.

  • Crowns, and the narod cord

    Armenian crowns are usually slender diadems or bands rather than the closed metal crowns of the Slavic churches, placed on the heads by the priest. What is distinctive is what accompanies them. The narod — a braided red and green cord — is blessed and put around the couple’s necks, and unlike the crowns it stays on when they leave. In the older practice it was worn for some days and then removed by the priest, and a family may still keep that custom. Ask the priest how long you are expected to wear it, because guests will notice it and ask about it long before anybody explains the crowns.

  • The language of the service

    Classical Armenian for the service, Modern Armenian for the address and the greetings, and English used generously in North American parishes where the majority of the congregation was born there. Armenian is written in its own alphabet, devised by St Mesrop Mashtots in the fifth century, and a guest with no Armenian will not decode anything by sight. Parishes will normally provide an English text, and it is a routine request.

  • The Gregorian calendar, with the Nativity and Theophany together on the sixth of January

    The Armenian Church is the only church in the world that has never separated the Nativity from the Theophany. It celebrates both together on the sixth of January as a single feast, which was the universal practice of the early Church before the December date spread, and Armenians did not adopt the change. Most Armenian dioceses otherwise use the Gregorian calendar, with the notable exception of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which keeps the Julian one and therefore observes the feast on the nineteenth of January. For a couple, the practical effect is that the Armenian Christmas is in January, and that the Nativity fast preceding it closes the end of December and the first week of January.

The calendar

When a wedding cannot be held

The Armenian Church keeps a substantial cycle of fasts and weddings are not celebrated during them. The list is not the Byzantine one and should not be assumed from it; the diocese or prelacy publishes the dates each year.

Every list of closed dates is applied by a parish priest, and a bishop can dispense. Treat this as the shape of the year, not as your parish’s answer.

Great Lent
The longest closure. Armenian Lent has its own reckoning and its own preparatory week, and the whole of it is closed to weddings.
The fast before the Nativity and Theophany
Running into the sixth of January, so the Western holiday period and the first week of the new year are unavailable.
The weeks of the other major fasts
The Armenian calendar includes several week-long fasts through the year — before the Assumption, before the Exaltation of the Cross and others — each of which closes its week.
The eves of the great feasts
A wedding is not celebrated on the eve of a dominical feast, which regularly affects the Friday or Saturday a family had in mind.
Wednesdays and Fridays
Kept as fast days through much of the year in Armenian practice, and generally avoided for weddings.

Before the date

What has to be arranged first

Armenians in North America are served by two separate hierarchies — the Eastern and Western Dioceses under Holy Etchmiadzin, and the Eastern and Western Prelacies under the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia — and a family usually belongs to one or the other. Start with your own parish; it knows its own procedure.

Baptism in the Armenian Apostolic Church, for at least one party
With the certificate from the parish of baptism. Armenian baptism includes chrismation at the same service, as in the other apostolic churches.
A kavor who is a member of the Armenian Church
The sponsor holds the cross and is a participant in the rite, so the requirement is a real one rather than a preference. Raise it early if the obvious candidate is not Armenian Apostolic.
Permission where one party belongs to another church
Marriage to a baptised Christian of another confession is generally possible with the blessing of the diocesan primate or prelate, and the conditions are set locally. Marriage to someone who is not baptised is not celebrated. Because the two Armenian jurisdictions answer this separately, ask your own.
A previous marriage
Requires an ecclesiastical decision from the relevant hierarchy before a second church wedding. It is not granted automatically and it takes time.
The civil licence
Signed by the priest under the applicable state or provincial law.

Around the service

Customs a guest will actually meet

None of these is part of the rite. They belong to the families, the diaspora and the reception, and they are what makes one Orthodox wedding feel unlike another.

  • Lavash on the shoulders

    As the couple arrive at the reception or at the groom’s family home, the mother-in-law drapes thin lavash bread over their shoulders and offers them honey. The bread is for plenty and the honey for sweetness, and it is done at the door rather than in church.

  • Breaking plates at the threshold

    Plates placed on the ground for the couple to step on and break as they come in. Loud, brief, and in most families non-negotiable.

  • The narod, worn out of the church

    Because the blessed cord stays on after the service, the couple leave the church visibly marked in a way no Byzantine couple does. It is the detail non-Armenian guests ask about most, and the answer — that it is blessed and worn until the priest removes it — usually surprises them.

  • The kavor at the table

    The godfather of the wedding has a formal place at the reception and a formal set of obligations to go with it, and in many families he carries a share of the cost. It is a role with duties rather than an honour without them.

  • The dancing does not end early

    Armenian weddings run long, the music is live where it can be, and the shurjpar and the tamzara will pull in everybody in the room, including the guests who said they would not dance.

The service itself

How this rite compares

Armenian Apostolic weddings follow their own rite rather than the Byzantine one, so the walkthrough on our main page describes a different service. It is still the most useful comparison available in English, and the underlying idea — crowns placed by the Church, prayers rather than vows — is shared.

Read the Byzantine service in full

The Oriental Orthodox churches separated from the rest of the Church at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and are not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox churches. Their wedding services are not translations of the Byzantine rite and should not be planned from a description of it. Your own parish is the authority on your own wedding, and in this case there is no near substitute for asking.

Questions

Good to know

All Orthodox wedding guides

What is a psak?

It is the Armenian word for a church wedding, and it means crown. As in the Greek, Russian and Romanian traditions, the service is named after the crowning rather than after any promise. The engagement service, nshanadrutyun, is a separate rite that may be celebrated earlier and is where the rings are blessed.

What is the narod at an Armenian wedding?

A cord braided from red and green thread, blessed by the priest and placed around the necks of the bride and groom during the crowning. The colours are commonly explained as the blood of Christ and the new life given through him. Unlike the crowns, the narod is worn out of the church, and in the older practice it stayed on for some days until the priest removed it.

Is the Armenian Church in communion with the Greek or Russian Orthodox Church?

No. The Armenian Apostolic Church is Oriental Orthodox and has not been in communion with the Eastern Orthodox churches since the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The two families share apostolic orders, sacraments and a great deal of tradition, and relations are warm, but they are distinct communions and the wedding rites are genuinely different.

Why do Armenians celebrate Christmas on the sixth of January?

Because the Armenian Church never separated the Nativity from the Theophany. Celebrating both together on the sixth of January is the older universal practice, and Armenians simply did not follow the move to a December date. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem keeps the Julian calendar and so observes the same feast on the nineteenth of January.

Who is the kavor and what does he do?

The kavor is the godfather of the wedding. He holds the cross above the couple’s joined heads during the crowning, stands with them through the service, and keeps a continuing place in the family afterwards, often with real financial and social obligations at the reception. He must be a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

What is the difference between the Armenian dioceses and prelacies?

They answer to two different hierarchies: the Dioceses to the Catholicos of All Armenians at Holy Etchmiadzin, the Prelacies to the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia at Antelias in Lebanon. The division is historical and organisational rather than doctrinal, and the wedding service is the same. A family generally belongs to one or the other, and that determines whose procedure applies.

Keep exploring

Related guides

Church: The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the Oriental Orthodox churches, served in North America by dioceses of Holy Etchmiadzin and by prelacies of the Great House of Cilicia

Reviewed: · Editorial standards

Sources: Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America · Armenian Prelacy of the Eastern United States · St Nersess Armenian Seminary

Meet someone who shares your faith and intentions.

Build a thoughtful profile, discover Orthodox singles and start with a real conversation.

Get started