New Years in Georgia

December 31 2009
It is a rainy day here and very dark and gray. Yesterday I asked Nino, our housekeeper to tell me about the traditions of the Georgian Christmas. (Thanks, Dana) I discovered that Georgians do not give gifts at Christmas (Jan 7th) but at New Years. Yikes, I thought to myself, Ron has been baking and freezing holiday bread to give to colleagues at work as well as Gia, our driver, Elza, our language teacher and Nino and Zura, Nino’s husband who does yard work for us. We had planned to give gift baskets with Ron’s raisin walnut rye bread, cranberry cookies I had baked and frozen, chocolate bars and cranberry candies both from Oregon. In addition we had some scented soaps and mixed nuts. Ron made bread last night and got up at 4:45 this morning to bake two loaves. This bread has to be baked inside a Dutch oven so it is one loaf at a time. I woke up at 5:00 and read in bed thinking surely I will fall back asleep. No such luck so after awhile I got up and joined Ron in the kitchen and made some coffee. We managed to put together five gift baskets before heading out to class. Ron will bake more bread this weekend and give his ‘gifts’ next week to his colleagues.

Back to the traditions here. Apparently New Year’s Eve and Day are a big deal here. Like at home it is a national holiday. And like at home, drinking is a big part of the celebration so driving here at night is worse than normal. We both have observed more erratic driving than normal during this season. It just gets crazier and crazier. Nino told me on Christmas Eve the devoted go to the churches and stay there all night until the next day around one o’clock in the afternoon. They do not eat, drink or sit for that period of time. I am too old for such traditions. She said her brother-in-law does this at Christmas. She said the churches are packed so those who chose not to stay all night go into the church Christmas day, light candles and leave as it is so crowded you can’t do anything else. There is literally no room. Georgians do have Christmas trees and have for a long time apparently. Nino grew up having a Christmas tree but she said they did not exchange gifts. Now gifts are more common but they are not given at Christmas and just on New Years and I think mostly this tradition is for the children. Nino said they put the gifts under the tree. Many Georgians now have artificial trees. One nursery I am aware of had real trees but they cost a small fortune, starting at over $100. I have spied some people selling small trees (some were branches mounted on a small piece of plywood) near the fresh markets but not large lots like we have in the US. Speaking of trees, there are no paper bags here at any of the stores. It is plastic or nothing. Small bakeries that make bread only either just hand you the bread with nothing or give you a piece of newspaper if the bread is hot. Some have plastic bags but I often see people carrying bread totally unwrapped or packaged in any way. Countries as old as Georgia have no forests left so paper is scarce and expensive. I could find no tissue paper for the baskets for example after trying several stores. I forgot to ask Nino about Jan 19th which is the Epiphany, another national holiday.

Wikipedia says:
Epiphany (from Koine Greek ἐπιφάνεια "appearance", "manifestation") is a Christian feast day which celebrates the revelation of God in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. It falls on January 6 or on a Sunday close to that date. January 6 in the Julian Calendar, which is followed by some Eastern Churches, corresponds at present to January 19 in the Gregorian Calendar, which is the official civil calendar in most countries. On this day, Western Christians commemorate principally the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the child Jesus, i.e., his manifestation to the Gentiles.

Ron and I have noticed a marked increase in the meat being sold on the street. We assume this is for the celebration of the New Year. Orthodox Christians however do not eat any animal products when fasting. Fasting started three weeks or so ago and will end the day after Christmas, Jan 8th. We have seen lots of small pigs minus their innards hanging from the stands set up near the fresh markets. The entire pig is bought and cooked whole we assume. Pork is a main meat source here. Although other meats are consumed: sheep and cows are other main meats. Georgians eat a lot of chicken and often they are sold with the feet and occasionally with the head. Yuck! Since these products are raised on small scale farms they do not endure the processing that we have in the US. So chickens are their natural color which is much more yellow than ours which have been bleached.

That sums up what I know about Georgian traditions for the Christmas season. So Ron will get off from work around 2:00 apparently when the ministry closes for the holiday. He was given two gallons of Georgian wine presented in plastic jugs. Glass is another rarity here. Most Georgians make homemade wine and chacha (vodka), and put it in plastic jugs. Since it is cold and rainy we will probably build a fire and call it a day. I will be cooking this afternoon as I leave for five days in Paris on Sunday. Ron is a competent cook but doesn’t usually bother when he is alone. Being the classic worry wart, I cook up a few meals that he can eat while I am away. I will meet my friend Andrea after she completes a Buddhist retreat outside of Paris. I am excited about seeing some great art while there. I don’t have anything else on my agenda but I am sure we will pack in a lot in the time we have. She got us a great room at a hotel in the heart of things.

Tomorrow Ron and I will probably do some more exploring in our neighborhood. If the weather is cooperating we want to try to find the lake that is on the other side of the ridge above us. I hope that our little funky movie house will be open and showing a good film. Our good friend James in Charlottesville read in the blog about the wooden seats and sent us tushie cushions! Yeah James! I think it will be a quiet weekend for us.

Ron got home at 1:30and said he was one of the last to leave the building. Gia came in with Ron and invited us to his home to meet the rest of his family tomorrow. So we will walk in the morning and go to Gia’s in the afternoon. What fun!

January 1 2010
We went to bed shortly before midnight but got up when the fireworks started about 11:50 and they continued until about 12:20. We are truly amazed. It was as though every one in Tbilisi had bought a large supply of fancy fireworks. The sky was filled in every direction yet this was not a ‘sponsored’ display but individuals shooting off sky rockets, etc. When you think about how expensive fireworks are and how poor most Georgians are it was even more impressive. They continue tonight but on a much smaller scale.

We slept in today and had a leisurely breakfast. Afterwards we decided to take our walk. It was another glorious day here with blue skies and bright sunshine. First we went down a street near us that we were curious about then headed up the hill to try to find the lake that we knew was somewhere over the ridge behind our house. On the way up we were looking over a fence to try to find the rushing water we could hear from the road. A car stopped behind us and it was our friends Mike and Cassandra from the Embassy. We had met them in DC when the four of us were at the security training that we were required to take. They were heading up to the lake and offered us a lift. The lake is quite large and beautiful. It was a mirror, not a ripple to be seen and offered a very calming effect. We must return with our camera. While Mike and Cassandra took a run on a trail, we walked along another trail for 30 minutes then met up and they gave us a ride home. As Mike was turning left onto our street, one of those crazy Georgian drivers tried to pass us on the left. Mike had his signal on. We came very close to a very bad accident.

We changed clothes and Gia picked us up at 1:00. On the way over to his place, a driver ran a red light and slammed on his brakes just in time to avoid hitting the car next to us which would have hit us if the accident had occurred. Another crazy Georgian driver. Gia’s apartment is located in a large building and his was on the top floor, I think it was the fourth or fifth floor. The central stairway was in very poor condition. The landings were tile and many of the tiles were broken or missing. The steps were rough concrete. Ron explained to me that people own the apartments but the common areas such as the stairway fall into a category of where there is no owner and consequently there is no maintenance. The apartment building were constructed in the soviet era where the state maintained the common areas. Once that went away, people were given title to the apartments, but there is no legal mechanism for making collective repairs to common areas like the outside of the building, the roof or common systems, like heat or electricity.

This is typical of what I have seen in other buildings. Inside he had a lovely home with beautiful wood floors. Tiko had prepared a supra, a feast. The table was set and filled with traditional dishes: chicken, chicken in walnut sauce, salmon, olives, vegetable salad, stuffed grape leaves, a plate of cheese, spinach with walnuts, chicken salad, eggplant with walnut sauce, bilini, several breads, chatchapuri (bread stuffed with a salty cheese), corn grits with walnut sauce, fresh fruit, and a plate with three or four dessert breads. They was more but this is all I can recall. Gia said she had been cooking for two days but it was the New Year’s tradition. She is a wonderful cook. I could have eaten all the bilini she had made. They are a thin pancake stuffed with meat and onion. Remember that those who fast eat no animal products so Tiko is fasting and their two daughters fast the traditional two days a week: Wednesday and Fridays. So much of this meal was for Gia and the two of us.

We met Gia’s family: his mother who lives with them, Sopo, the eldest at 15 years old, Salome who is 14 and Wako who is 10. I forgot to mention chacha was served (homemade vodka), homemade wine (red and white), champagne was offered, coke and water. Ron and I ate heartily but the others hardy ate at all. Later Gia got hungry and ate a bit. Tiko nibbled and ate the grits with the walnut sauce along with Gia’s mother.

Sopa speaks perfect English and it an extremely articulate and bright young woman. She actually talked to us the entire evening. Wako, their son relaxed after a bit and once he got going he couldn’t contain himself. He had a million questions. He had us all laughing throughout the day and evening. Sopa talked about art, literature and geography and was knowledgeable about every subject she introduced. We were blown away. We found out later that all three children are in a private school and study English 8 hours a week. .

While we were there, three cousins came over and their mother who is Gia’s brother’s wife. I should mention that Gia is always serious with us and rarely cracks a smile. A couple of times he has laughed but it is rare. It was such a delight to see him with his family in his environment and see him relaxed. The funniest thing that happened was when Ron was taking Gia’s photograph, he asked Gia to smile. Gia looked at the camera and said with his usual straight face ‘ha ha’ then burst out laughing having cracked himself up. Ron caught it so you can see Gia smiling. I couldn’t stop laughing. All in all we had a wonderful time with Gia and his family. His children are so sweet and delightful. Ron and I told Gia that today was the highlight of our time in Georgia. We were quite touched by the whole experience. We left at 7:00 after having arrived around 1:20 or so.