On February 14 Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Tiarn’ndaraj. This is the Feast of presentation the 40 day-old Christ Child to the Temple in Jerusalem, where a man named Simeon and Prophet Anna met Christ Child.
On February 13, in the evening, after the mass, Evening Services (Nakhatonak) are conducted, here the priest lights a candle from the Holy Altar, and distributes the flame to all present. And after it the faithful take the lit candles home to their families.
On this day after the liturgy in the four corners of the church some parts of the Gospel are read, the light is blessed, Simeon and the Prophet Anna are mentioned, Armenian chants (sharakans) are sung.
After all these in the yard of the church, according to the ancient tradition, people make a fire. This tradition comes from pagan period, which is connected with Armenian pagan Gods Mihr or Tir.