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Great Lent, as well as Fast of Forty Days,  karasnordk (Armemian: քառասնորդք), the longest lent (that is why it is called great). It lasts 48 days. It begins on the Eve of Great and lasts till the Eve of the Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Easter).  Forty days of fasting period are called “days of salt and bread” (Arm-աղուհացի օրեր “aghuhatsi orer”); in the past there were some days during the fasting period, when people, especially hermits and anchorites, ate only bread and salt. 

The feasting days, especially the days of Great Lent are the period of abstinence from food (besides on Saturdays and Sundays), restraint, spiritual and interpersonal reflection, regret, prayer, repentance, moral improvement, remission of sins and atonement.

The forty days symbolize Christ’s 40-day lasting period of abstinence, as well as the symbolic number 40, which is often mentioned in the Bible.  This was Christ’s 40-day lasting period of abstinence and repentance in the desert. Apostolic canons, as well as the canons of local and national church councils touched upon the Fast of Forty Days.  Saturdays of Great Lent period are dedicated to the memory of the saints. When the Presentation of the Lord and the Annunciation coincide to the days of Great Lent,  all ritual demands were stopped, the curtain of the church is opened, liturgy is recited, but the fasting is not broken.

During the Great Lent, the curtain of the tabernacle is closed, close Liturgy is recited, marriages are forbidden. Only the baptism and the betrothal permitted.

During the Great Lent Armenian chants (sharakan-շարական) attributed to Mesrop Mashtots,  as well as the canon of the Sunday chants by Nerses Shnorhali are sung. Each Sunday of Great Lent period is dedicated to a  Biblical event and an idea, and  thus the  Sundays are called Eve of Great Lent, Sunday of Expulsion, Sunday of the Lost (Prodigal), Sunday of the Steward, Sunday of the Judge, Sunday of Advent. 

Source: Encyclopedia of «Christian Armenia», editor in chief Hovhannes Ayvazyan, Yerevan, 2002, page 712-713. (in Armenian).