Similar to our Thanksgiving holiday, we had many friends to celebrate with here in Tbilisi. Naturally, we were missing our families, but we enjoyed talking to them all on Christmas! Truly, cheap phone calls through the internet and being able to see each other with our webcams are SPECIAL gifts!!!
Because Georgia is an Orthodox nation, Christmas is celebrated on January 7th rather than December 25th. Thus, December 25th was just another day for most in Georgia. Although quite early for us, we arose at 6am to listen a radio broadcast (via the internet) from Chanute, Kansas. A local coffeehouse did a performance of “A Christmas Carol.” It was airing at 8pm local time on Christmas Eve but was an early morning Christmas for us. Later on this day, we gathered with several of our friends. We enjoyed a lovely feast and lots of good fellowship and games.
We again celebrated New Year’s Eve with more friends. The New Year’s holiday is the primary celebration at this time of year for Georgians. Many spend the evening with family and New Year’s Day is a special day to have guests. New Year’s is when Tovlis Papa (Santa Clause) comes bearing gifts. The first guest on New Year’s Day is quite important. They want it to be someone special who will bring good blessings to their home for the new year. We were invited to our friend Kote’s home for a New Year’s supra (Georgian feast). This was Megan’s second time to be in Kote and Vera’s home for New Year’s. All the food was delicious and Vera’s gozinaki (walnuts with honey) is the best! (click here for a gozinaki recipe)
And then…we did it all again! According to the Gregorian calendar, Christmas falls on January 7th and that’s when the Orthodox Church recognizes the holiday. Thus, since Christmas is later so is New Year’s Day which falls again on January 14th. It is not celebrated as widely as the traditional New Year, but still it is celebrated by some here. We were invited to be the guests in the home of two sisters…Leah and Nana. They treated us to a delightful afternoon with another supra.
After several weeks of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, the holidays are finally winding down. The fireworks have ceased after being a regular occurrence since before December 25th Christmas. We uploaded some photos from our holiday celebrations. We also tried to post a video from December 31st New Year’s Eve, but it doesn't seem to be working. Oh well...a good part of the night was filled with fireworks going off everywhere. They even shoot them from their apartment balconies! It sounded a bit like a war zone but thankfully it is not!
 |
 |
| This slideshow design generated with Smilebox |
No comments:
Post a Comment