So holidays in Georgia really begin on New Year's Eve, the one on December 31st. Church is at 11:00pm, and fireworks go off at midnight, everywhere! Every home, 360 degrees. So that was fun. My Koda host family had a small dinner at midnight. But I hear others that have big ones. Here is my 'host brother' with his fireworks.
New Year's Day is a day for family to visit and make the rounds. It is also a fun tradition to share chocolates with everyone. When guests walk into a house, everyone distributes them, those coming and the hosts No one told us, so a friend and I were surprised when we caught a marshutka to go hike to a famous 10th century monastery and the fellow passengers were passing around chocolates to the driver and others. Then we caught a ride up to the monastery and they gave us chocolates ( ok, so we didn't hike that long ). I hate when we don't learn about local customs. But it could be kharma payback for the times when perhaps Gary and I weren't as sharing as we could have been with our au pairs, when the kids were small. There are so many little things that make a cultural exchange so much more pleasant, be it the Peace Corps, or an employment situation like a au pair. Here is the Shavnabada Monastery, with PCV Karen and one of its monks, on New Years Day.
Still on the 1st we were invited to a friend's home for a supra dinner. It was the best supra my friend ever attended, she said. Why? Because it was young people that aren't tied to the somewhat arbitrary traditions of drinking, toasting, eating and drinking too much. We had a great time, sang, danced, sang American songs, heard some lovely Gerogian songs. We were complimented when we could sing the Georgian national anthem. The anthem, whose title means "Freedom", was adopted in 2004, along with the new national flag and coat of arms. The symbols' change was brought about upon the successful overthrow of the previous government in the bloodless Rose Revolution. The music, taken from the Georgian operas Abesalom da Eteri ("Abesalom and Eteri") and Daisi ("The Nightfall"), by the Georgian composer Zachary (Zakaria) Paliashvili. I Think it is beautiful. Check it out. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxvkzbArNf4
Half way through the evening a fellow guest, an local voice instructor, said our American names were too difficult, so we became Kete and Eka instead of Karen and Kim for the rest of the evening. Again it reminded of our au pair from 20 years ago. Her name was "Mi". After Matt came home from kindergarten being chastised for calling someone "me", we asked her and Americanized her name to Myra for the rest of her stay with us. So it was a fun night. No one got drunk, the parents enjoyed their time with the kids. I enjoyed everyone.
Next comes Christmas, January 7th. I have already written about this, with my special training host family in Khashuri, some won't bore you again, but suffice to say, it was a wonderful time. And although I skipped midnight mass, which lasted until after 4 am, standing the whole time! I will never complain again about our Catholic Masses running over an hour. It is traditional in Georgia to go on Alilo (a modified pronunciation of Alleluia), a mass walk in the streets, where they collect food and clothing for the poor. And to see the maumaus (priests) walking through the entire town after standing most of the night, it humbled everyone, and I think made more people add to the collection.
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I should mention that homes have very small artificial trees, and few decorations. Just enough to be festive, and colored lights, etc.
Next comes old calendar New Years, January 14th. We had off from work this day, and there was more partying and visiting, but not enough to ask for the following day off, which was Friday. Finally, Epiphany wraps up the holiday season, with more church.
Visiting tbilisi I found some beautiful lights and arrangements on govt buildings and in the parks, as well as strung over the roadways, shaped like chandeliers. Very nice and it not overdone. No Grizwalds here.
The upside, not a lot of commercialism, lots of extended family time, and it doesn't run From Halloween to New Years. On the down side, most of January is a waste, with partying and a string of reasons to have supras. Oh well, maybe that's not a bad thing? But then we could say the same thing about December in the US, but with end of year sales forecasts and EOY closing, I never felt we could goof off too much.
I hope to have more steady Internet this year, so can blog more consistently. Please email me with your thoughts and comments. kydixon@earthlink.net I love to hear from you too! Happy new year!
