Ilia Managadze – NEW YEAR TOPIC

New Year is a special holiday throughout the world. New Year’s traditions were established a long time ago and are constantly evolving. The culture of every country is clearly manifested in its celebrations.

In Georgia we have New Year just like other countries on January the first, but in the Gregorian calendar we also celebrate New Year on January the fourteenth and we name it Old New Near.

Here in Georgia -in the Imeretian Region- there is a tradition of the arrival of the “first footer”. The head of the family was obliged to go around the house three times with a bowl full of food and ask the Lord for an increase in health, prosperity and blessings. In the bowl there was a pig’s head, barbecue, boiled chicken, Khachapuri, beans, corn bread and sugar bread. After circling the house three times, the head of the family would enter the house, light up candles and say prayers.

We have a special Christmas tree called a Tchitchilaki.  After New Year they burn the Tchcitchilaki with the intention that it takes away whatever bad happened last year.
                                                                                       
Also in the Gregorian calendar there is the difference regarding the date of Christmas time. We celebrate on the seventh of January.

Christmas holidays end on the nineteenth of January. On this date we celebrate Epiphany.
Epiphany is when Jesus was baptized. It is celebrated 12 days after Christmas in Orthodox Traditions on the 19^th of January.

Author: Ilia Managadze