The Christmas holidays here in Tbilisi start with the new New Year celebration on January 1st. Unlike the US where celebrations end soon after midnight December 31st here they begin at midnight plus 1 (minute or hour depending on stamina of participant). My friend received her first New Year call at 1am; the call stating, not asking, that the friends were coming to visit. One is expected to entertain with food and fellowship (translate wine). This continues for days.
Celebration parties start at 10:30 and go until 4:30; especially those hosted n the apartment above my bedroom. Sunday night seems most popular. There’s eating, dancing and music with a definite base beat.
The Orthodox Christmas, brought here by the Russian Orthodox, is Dec 7th. No one seems to know why the change, (little outside pressure maybe?), as many songs of the Church refer to the December date. The day is celebrated by a parade down Rustevilli. . The procession is lead by priests followed by young girls in white surrounding a float containing baskets. Goods and Lari for orphanages are deposited in these baskets. Then the day and evening is filled with supras with friends and family. I joined several friends at a mutual friend’s apartment for a supra. As Salome greeted us she said her home was a small apartment with a great heart. She truly spoke the truth as her place could fit in my bedroom with room to spare. This is home to her, her husband and two sons. Her mother-in-law lives in a room across a small alley. The room is furnished with bunk beds; soon to be shared by her eldest son. The bathroom is also across the hall. Kind of like some experienced in my youth only mine had no running water. It is a different kind of existence but one they accept for themselves and very graciously share. But as Salome said, she hopes for better for her sons. We ate, talked and laughed for hours all crowed around a table the size of a standard card table. In these circumstances one feels very connected to ones fellow dinner. Meanwhile outside the streets are shining with lit chandeliers swinging across the street and Freedom Square’s fountain spilling a multitude of small sparkling lights down wedding cake layers.
January 19th is Epiphany the time most baptisms occur. The Patriarch has issued a statement that he will be the godfather for every third child or thereafter. This is because families are so poor they stop with one or two children. But the child-bearing population has been decimated by war and conflicts so that the total population is decreasing. Some fear that the will see a whole generation missing and not possible to replace. This Epiphany the Patriarch baptized 300 babies! Each got their own audience, so if there was no bathroom or eating breaks and it took only 10 minutes to baptize one child he would have need 50 hours. Even the head of the church couldn’t make that happen in a day. So not sure what they did.
I attended a baptism. The ritual has definite similarities to European churches. At this time the child’s name is recorded in the church’s book; marking him as an individual and bestowing a dignity on him in God’s eye. The ritual begins with a handful of water poured over the child’s forehead three times. She is also anointed with oil on the forehead, eyes, lips, heart, hands and feet. I assumed because these are the parts that can get one into trouble but the doctrine states it is because these parts brings one to God and through them we serve him. The priests then wash each place with a special white towel that the god parents furnish. No one seemed to know for sure why. The best answer I found was that they did not want the child touching dirty places with oily hands where the dirt could stick. Finally 3 small locks of hair are snipped to represent the only gift the child can give in return for the blessing of baptism (hair being the symbol of strength as with Sampson).
This is also the day each family brings a container to church to receive holy water to take home. It is used for making a person feel better when sick and to calm down a child. I’m sure there are more uses but these were the important ones for the young mother I spoke with. Each family brings his own bottle which acolytes fill from a five-gallon pail. They bring what they have, I saw one man take his holy water home in a plastic beer bottle.
On January 31st the decorations are down and life returns to normal; not just heading into the next holiday.
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