Tehran’s Armenian community has secretly celebrated Tyarndarach (Candlemas Day), taking advantage of the absence of the head of Iranian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
According to an independent Iranian journalist Vartan Davtian, Armenian churches in Iran prohibit making bonfires as a symbol of Zoroastrism and pagan traditions.
“The public, however, insists on the Christian roots of the holiday and continues marking it,” Davtian said.
