Vardavar is a Christian tabernacle holiday. According to the church calendar, it is celebrated 14 weeks or 98 days after Easter, on the Sunday between June 28 and August 1. Gregory the Illuminator changed it to the tone of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Vardavar or Transfiguration of Christ is one of the five feasts of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

In many settlements of Armenia, however, according to local tradition, Vardavar is celebrated on other days, from mid-July to early August.

Vardavar is one of the most beloved among traditional Armenian holidays, the most favorite summer holiday. In cities, Vardavar is considered more of a children’s holiday, that’s how children say “to play with water” or “to play with water”, that is, to happily water strangers and passers-by.

Vardavar is a pagan holiday of origin, which, according to the views in Armenology, was connected with the worship of goddesses Astghik and Anahit, New Year-Navasard. Since ancient times, in the month of July, after completing the main field work and harvesting the grain, it was customary to organize a great festival, blessing and making sacrifices to the forces patronizing the field. Thus, one of the necessary manifestations of the festival was to carry bundles of spikes and even baskets by the Mehyans, paying tribute to the gods who helped the growth of those spikes, to sacrifice a lamb near the sources of water, in the shrines to pray to the spirits of the waters, honoring the forces that patronize the water that is so necessary for field work.

According to the Christian tradition, on that day, Jesus Christ together with the apostles Peter, James and John ascends the mountain to pray. The apostles fall asleep from heat and fatigue, and light descends on the praying Christ, his face brightens like the sun, and his garment turns white like snow, so that the whole mountain is bathed in light. The apostles wake up from that glow and witness the miracle of the “Transfiguration” and “Transfiguration” of Christ.