Prayer of Thanks and Pomegranate Blessing on the Eve of the New Year
30.12.2019
At midnight on the Eve of the New Year, with the Blessings of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, a Prayer of Thanks Pomegranate-blessing service will be offered in all churches of Yerevan and at the St. Trdat Open Air Altar in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
The government of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh has donated pomegranates to the Mother Cathedral for the Blessing of the Pomegranate. In the Armenian tradition, the pomegranate is a national symbol representing life, abundance and prosperity.
In Christian symbolism, the pomegranate represents the blood shed by Jesus Christ, also symbolizing the Lord's Glorious Resurrection and the diversity of God's graces. And in interpretations by priests of the Armenian Church, the pomegranate also depicts that like the pomegranate seeds, the Church members are numerous and various, but are covered with a solid outer layer, being united into one Church. For this reason, the pomegranate is widely used in the ornamentation of the church architecture, arts, and miniatures.
