There are numerous suggestions as to what the term “vardavar” stands for and how it originated. According to ethnographer Samvel Mkrtchyan, the word “Vardavar” is of Hittite origin, meaning “rose” “bright”; this corresponds to the same meaning some attach to the word in Armenian itself, because in Armenian, “vard” (վարդ) means rose and “var” (վառ) means bright. Similar interpretations also suggest that it comes from the custom of sprinkling rose water at each other.
Other versions include that sugguested by historian Grigor Ghapantsyan, that Vardavar is a Hittite word formation consisting of the words “vadar” (water) and “arr” (to wash, to shake).
Some others consider the word “Vardavar” to be borrowed from Sanskrit. Literary and cultural figure Hovhannes Tsotsikyan considered only the first part of the word, “vard”, to come from Sanskrit, meaning “water”, and the other part, “avar”, to come from the Armenian word meaning “to pour”, “to scatter”.