The Fast of Catechumens (or Arachavorats Bahk) is peculiar only to the Armenian Church. It begins three weeks before Great Lent. In ancient times people could eat only bread and salt during the Fast of Catechumens. On those days it was not allowed to celebrate the Divine Liturgy either.
The meaning of the Fast of Catechumens is the purification of the five human senses from pagan impurity. In the ancient Church there was a custom to fast during five days before baptism. St Gregory the Illuminator ordered King Tiridates and others to fast for five days before baptism in order to get freed of evil. This is the reason that the Fast of Catechumens is also called “Fast of Salvation” from evil.
According to tradition, the fasting of Catechumens was initiated by St. Gregory the illuminator in memory of the above mentioned practice.
There are two explanations regarding the name of this feast.
It is called the fast of Catechumens:
1. As the precursor of the Great Lent, and
2. As the first Armenian fast.
On the fifth day of the fasting of Catechumens, on Friday, the remembrance day of the Prophet Jonah is celebrated, but it is celebrated not as the feast of the Prophet Jonah, but as the memory of an example of great repentance and abstinence which Jonah urged. At times, wrongly, the fasting of Catechumens was called the fast of St. Sarkis, because the Armenian Church celebrates the feast of St. Sarkis on the Saturday following the fast. During the Middle Ages, the Byzantine and the Georgian Churches blamed the Armenian Church for the fasting of Catechumens, relating it to St. Sarkis, to whom they ascribed sorcery. According to the testimonies of Armenian medieval writers, Greek and Latin Churches also had the fasting of Catechumens in ancient times.
Of all the days in the Armenian liturgical year, only the days of the Arachavorats Bahk have no scripture readings appointed to be read during the daily services. The word “Arachavorats” comes from two root words: arach (before) and avoor (day). So the literal translation would be something like “preceding days.” In English it is best referred to as the “Preliminary Fast,” in other words, the fast that precedes the Great Fast, Great Lent.
