Christmas traditions in Georgia

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope, that you are all doing just fine! Well, it is Christmas now in Georgia, because this is an orthodox one, so that we celebrate it and it's half past midnight already here in Tbilisi, so that I wanted to tell you some things about Christmas in Georgia.

In  this article I want to tell you about Christmas in Georgia, which is on January the 7-th, because it’s an orthodox one. Some time ago, people didn’t really celebrate Christmas on the January 7, however, it’s starting to become pretty popular celebrating it in January, if you want to know the truth.

Well, there are some traditions, which people usually keep on Christmas and there are not many of them, however, they are pretty much important for the people and they keep those traditions very carefully.

You know, Christmas is the biggest holiday for catholic church and they have all those traditions which are pretty much different from the orthodox ones, and the date is different, too, of course. To be honest, we are celebrating the New Year and Christmas in a kind of wrong way in Georgia, I guess, because we celebrate the New Year on January the 1-st, however, then we celebrate Christmas on January the 7-th,so that it’s kind of not right, if you ask me. They say, that first Christ was born and then the new year began, though you can’t really know those things for sure and how everything happened.

Christmas fasting

Fist of all, you should know, that people are fasting until Christmas and it’s that 12 o’clock at midnight on January 7, when the fasting ends and people can eat whatever they want. Some people are looking forward to that time very impatiently and they are sitting at the tables, waiting for the clock to strike 12 o’clock, so that they can eat everything on the table.

Well, according to the calendar, the Christmas Fasting is the last long-term fasting, which starts on November the 15-th (it is according to the old style, I mean, the old calendar), though it’s November the 28-th according to the new calendar, and it lasts until the December 25-th (which is a January the 7-th according to the new style). That is the 40-day period of fasting.According to the church traditions, this fasting is also associated with Philippe the Apostle.

The Christmas Fasting is a preparation for the Christmas holiday. It’s a period of time, when people kind of sacrifice themselves for the sins, that they have done during the year and they kind of thank God for the good things, that they had during the year. They try to clean their souls with this fasting. This tradition comes from a very early centuries and there are some historical sources from the 4-th century AD, which tell us, that people kept Christmas Fasting even until that period of time, however, then the Christmas Fasting was not for 40 days, but it was for about two weeks or twelve days or something like that.

It was in 1166, when there was a gathering during emperor Manuel, when there was patriarch Luca, that they said, that the Christmas Fasting should be continued for 40 days.

Christmas pie (Guruli)

The Christmas pie or as they call it Guruli pie or Guruli Ghvezeli is  a kind of Khachapuri, however it’s not just cheese, that is inside the pie, but the filling is prepared with some hard boiled eggs, too.

This Christmas Guruli Ghvezeli is mainly prepared in the western parts of Georgia, where it originates from, too. The word “Guruli” is translated into English as “From Guria” or something like that, and there’s this region in the south-western part of Georgia, which is called Guria and they say, that the pie originates from there and, usually, they have those Guruli Ghvezelis on Christmas in Guria in every family according to the traditions.

People usually prepare those Christmas Guruli Ghvezelis on Christmas eve and they wait for the clock to strike 12, so that they know, that it’s Christmas and then they can eat those Christmas Guruli Ghvezelis. The recipe is pretty simple, they just use the yeast-based dough and the cheese and the hard boiled eggs for the filling and that’s it. They prepare that amount of Christmas Guruli Ghvezelis how many people there are in the house.Although, some families prepare one large Christmas Guruli Ghvezeli and then they cut it into some pieces according to the amount of people, who are at home.

While you can meet Christmas Guruli Ghvezelis in many houses during Christmas in the western Georgia, you hardly see those Christmas Guruli Ghvezeli in the eastern Georgia. Well, I haven’t been to that kind of family here in the east Georgia, where they had some Christmas Guruli Ghvezelis on Christmas. However, I have seen lots of them in the bakeries and in the large supermarkets, so if someone just wants to have a taste of that Christmas Guruli Ghvezeli, they can just go to the bakeries or those large supermarkets, where they can just buy them and taste them and they don’t usually cost much, they can be up to 2 laris, however, they usually cost 1 lari or so.

Alilo

Alilo is another tradition in Georgia during Christmas. Well, technically, it is a song called “Alilo”, which is performed during Christmas.

Alilo has a long history in Georgia, which was kind of destroyed during the Soviet Union, however, it was just a small period of time and in the 1990s our Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II renowned the tradition and it’s still our tradition during Christmas.

Nowadays, there’s this massive walking during Christmas day in Tbilisi. It’s after the Christmas liturgy and then people just gather together and they walk from Sameba cathedral, I guess.

So, “Alilo” is a Georgian traditional song, in general, which is performed on Christmas eve. The tradition was, that a couple of people would gather together and went door to door and they congratulated Christmas to the different families with that song. And, in the meantime, those families would give some goods or things like that to those people. Mostly common and necessary thing to give to the singers was the eggs, which are the symbol of life and productivity.

Alilo was a traditional thing in the whole country and they celebrated the Christmas everywhere. There was a slight difference in the performance of the song between the regions, though, of course.

Well, it was this every Christmas night after the church service, people would dress up like shepherds _ as in the history, and they would walk door to door telling others about Christ being born and they would sing “Alilo” to them, letting them know, that Jesus had been born. And those families, whose house they would knock on, would give the singers some food or flour or money or nuts or meat or whatever they had, because it was not a good thing not to give the singers anything, because that meant, that the following year would be bad for those families.

For example, in Tusheti the housekeeper’s wife would lay the table, which they had it like that until the baptism holiday and they called it “Qristes Supra”, which means “Christ’s feast”in English. There should have been large Katahs on the table and those Katahs were “Christ’s Victuals” as they called them.

Candle in the window

Well, there’s another tradition, too, on Georgian Christmas. I don’t know, where exactly it comes from, however, it’s something, that almost every family does and it’s a non-written rule on Christmas. Everyone knows, that when it’s nearly midnight on January 6 and it’s going to be January 7 soon, they should take a candle and put it near the window or somewhere there, so that it’s seen outside the window.

They say, that when you light a candle and put it nearby the window, then the Christ will see the light and come to your home. It’s like, that way, you let him inside your house. You invite him there and you offer him a shelter or something like that.

When you live in Tbilisi or somewhere else, where there are all those many-floored buildings with many windows and you can see them, it’s a great thing to be at home during Christmas. There’s an amazing view from your window to the others, where there are no lights, only the candles are lit in almost every window and it’s like a magical thing. You can not just glance at them, you want to look at them for hours, they are so beautiful from the far.  It’s something, that is worth waiting for and people usually wait for that 12 o’clock at midnight on January the 7-th, so that they can celebrate Christmas and light  a candle in their window.

Christmas flower

There’s another thing, too, which nowadays have become very popular in Georgia, though it was not a thing some time ago. I’m sure, that you all have heard about that Christmas plant or flower, which is a red one and really beautiful. Nowadays, many people like having it at home during Christmas and they are almost everywhere in every market or supermarket, so that you can easily buy those Christmas flowers in many places if you want to. To be honest, I would love to have it in my house no matter whether it’s Christmas or not, because it’s really lovely and that red colour with the green leaves is just a perfect combination, though it’s really Christmassy, if you want to know the truth.

This is a Puansetia, which Spanish called Flora de Noche Bueno. There’s a legend, that once there were orphans in Mexico and while all the other people gave some presents to the priest on Christmas, they didn’t have anything and instead, they gave him this Puansetia with a pot. This Puansetia turned read at night and since then they call it the Christmas flower.

Well, this is practically how people celebrate Christmas in Georgia and, how I usually celebrate Christmas here. Mostly people go to churches the following day, and there are services and things like that there. There’s always this 1973 Georgian film on TV called “Veris Ubnis Melodiebi” which can be translated into English as “Melodies from Vere”. Vere is a place in Tbilisi. And they usually have this film on TV on many channels on Christmas, because the film ends with that family sitting at the table on Christmas celebrating it together with the happy-ending. This film is a great one to know, how the life was in Tbilisi some years ago. Personally, I don’t really like that film, because I don’t really like those old films of any country, I guess, that’s because of the quality of filming, or I don’t really know, however, I really appreciate them and this film is a great one with great acting and the plot and the happy-ending.

Anyways, this was about Christmas in Georgia. And while it’s celebrated very differently comparing to the catholic one, where there are all those gifts and glitter and things like that, we have less of that glitter here, however, the Christ is the main thing, that gathers those two together. That glitter is more of a New Year thing here, if you want to know the truth. And the presents are opened on the New Year’s day, too, not on the Christmas day.

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