Teeth

A few years ago during a conversation my grandpa mentioned that in some ways its too bad that everyone gets braces these days because you used to be able to recognize people by their unique smile. At the time I thought it a silly comment, but having spent 5 months in Georgia, I couldn't agree more. Even though I've seen some crazy smiles with missing teeth, gold teeth, teeth that really need to be pulled, and teeth that somehow managed to come out in an unimaginable spot, I agree with my grandpa's comment. Behind the teeth there is a hidden charm in the uniqueness of everyone's smile.

Easter

The Easter celebrations start the week before on Palm Sunday. We went to church and everyone got palm like branches that they brought home. They put these somewhere in their house as a symbol of the week to come and keep them up after Easter as well.

On the first few days of the week, the women of the families go to the cemetery where their relatives are buried and clean up their family’s little plot of land. On Friday every one colors eggs red, which is supposed to be symbolic of the blood of Christ. This isn’t the fun family affair that it is in America where you spend an hour or two dyeing your eggs all colors. Basically, there is a huge cauldron that is filled with water and put over a fire. The water is dyed red and the eggs are put in. That way they are boiled and dyed at the same time. My family dyed around 90 eggs. Along with the eggs tons of other food is prepared for Sunday. Leading up to the weekend all women spend time cooking all the Georgian favorites.

Easter church service in Georgia starts at 11PM on Saturday night. My family lives quite a ways from the church and ended up not going. I wanted to go and see what it would be like so I went with Sopho’s family. The church was packed when we got there and the liturgy was already in progress. There were lots of prayers and songs and at midnight everyone went outside and circled the church three times. Then we came back in, there were more prayers and every now and again the “kriste agsdga,” which means “Christ is Risen,” and the people would respond with “cheshmaritad,” which means truly. The liturgy continued for a few hours after midnight but we ended up leaving around 1:30AM.

Easter Sunday in Georgia is quite a festive day. Everyone packs all of the food they have made in the days previous and heads for the cemetery for a picnic lunch. People put out their food (all the little family plots have tables in them) and instantly people from other families come to say hello and give the Easter greeting. After seeing a few people who came to see us, I left and wandered around and found different families that I knew. A ton of my students were there and I got to meet some of their parents. Every family you go to wants you to eat their food and drink their wine. Being a guest it’s hard for me to refuse, so needless to say I filled up fast.

It sounds a bit weird that we went to the cemetery for celebration but I really enjoyed the tradition and how Georgian’s ‘interact’ with their dead relatives. Most families placed candles around the graves. They also put food and wine on the graves. When you would go to the family of someone you knew, you could take and egg and put it on their grave, or drink part of your glass of wine and pour the rest over the grave. This is a way for them to involve all people in the celebration of Easter.

Later in the day we went home and Ramazi’s brother came over with his daughter and granddaughter and we had another meal with them. After that I went for a walk and had another meal with one of Ramazi’s neighbors. (This was also good because I met some people that I have since played quite a bit of soccer with.) We ended the night with another family coming over and having a meal with them…basically I ate a ton on Easter.

Over all it was a great holiday and I loved experiencing the way Georgian’s celebrate Easter.