There are two kinds of fasting:

1. Abstinence from meat and animal products – “bahk”

2. Total abstinence – “dzom”

 
Fasting days are classified as follows:

• Daily Fast: Wednesday and Friday, except during the forty days of Eastertide (until Ascension) and during the octave of the Theophany (January 6 – 13)

• The Fast of Great Lent and Holy Week (7 weeks): Great fast (medz bahk) starts on the first day of Great Lent, Monday, February 27, and continues until Great Saturday, April 15, 2017.

• Week-long Fasts: There are ten weeklong fasts preceding major feasts and commemorations, observed from Monday through Friday, except for the fast of the Nativity which is 6 days:

  1. Fast of Nativity/Theophany: December 30-January 4
  2. Fast of the Catechumens: February 6-10
  3. Fast of Elijah: June 5-9
  4. Fast of our Holy Father St. Gregory the Illuminator: June 26-30
  5. Fast of Transfiguration: July 17-21
  6. Fast of the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God: August 7-11
  7. Fast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: September 11-15
  8. Fast of the Holy Cross of Varak: September 25-29
  9. Fast of Advent: November 20-24
  10. Fast of St. Hagop: December 11-15
  

Major Feasts (Daghavar Doner)
1. Nativity (Christmas) and Epiphany – January 6
2. Easter – Resurrection (between March 22 and April 25)
3. Transfiguration (14 Sundays after Easter)
4. Assumption of the Holy Mother of God (the Sunday closest to August 15)
5. Exaltation of the Holy Cross (the Sunday closest to September 14)

Fixed Feasts
1. Nativity (Christmas) and Theophany – January 6
2. Presentation of the Lord to the Temple – February 14
3. Annunciation to Mary – April 7
4. The Birth of St. Mary the Theotokos – September 8
5. Presentation of the Holy Mother of God – November 21
6. Conception of the Virgin Mary by Anna – December 9