The Armenian calendar is the traditional calendar of Armenia. It was used in Old Armenia at the time before arrival of Christianity. It is a solar calendar based on the same system as the ancient Egyptian model, having an invariant 365-day year with no leap year rule. As a result, the correspondence between it and the Julian calendar slowly changes over time (such as year 769 on AD 1320 January 1, year 770 on AD 1320 December 31, and year 1032 on AD 1582 October 27 = Gregorian November 6). Some references report that the first month of the year, Navasard, corresponds to the start of Spring in the northern hemisphere, but that was only true from the 9th through 10th centuries. The current year, 1461, is the last of the great Armenian cycle of 1,461 wandering years which equal 1,460 Julian years. (See Sothic cycle). Next year, 1462, begins on 24 July 2012 (Gregorian), 11 July (Julian). Year 1 began on 11 July AD 552 (Julian).

The year consists of twelve months of 30 days each, plus five extra days (epagomenê) that belong to no month.

Arthur (Artashes) Meschian (Armenian: Արթուր Մեսչյան, born March 3, 1949, Yerevan) is an Armenian rock musician, singer, composer, artist and architect. He is also known as one of the founders of Armenian rock. He is the author of different architectural projects, including Guest House and the new building of Matenadaran in Armenia.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1960s and 1970s, Meschian was the leader of the Apostles (Arakyalner), an Armenian underground rock band that become the voice of the generation during the period of stagnation and Soviet censorship.^{[citation needed]} The band consisted of three students of the Yerevan State Politechnic Institute were singing about pain and sorrow (they used the lyrics written by Moushegh Ishkhan and Meschian).^{[citation needed]} General themes in the songs included the philosophy of life's meaning, pain and mercy or joy and pride.^{[citation needed]}

In 1976, Apostles was banned by Soviet censorship. In 1989, before the fall of the iron curtain, Meschian moved to the United States with his family, settling in Boston.^{[citation needed]} He formed the Apostles-90 band and recorded four studio albums featuring both old works from Apostles as well as new songs.^{[citation needed]}