We all celebrate the New Year differently. Sometimes with family or friends, and sometimes alone. The Chinese New Year is celebrated between 21st January and 20th February. It happens when the New Moon appears. Surprisingly, some cultures celebrate New Year during March, April or June. It is beyond interesting how New Year is celebrated differently around the world. In today’s essay, I am going to discuss Georgian superstitions connected to the New Year. 

 To be honest, Georgians are a bit non-identical (and I do not mean that offensively) in that they literally have two New Years’: New Year and Old New Year. Both are celebrated similarly. The first New Year is the most important. This is when people exchange presents. The Old New Year is celebrated on 14th of January.  

 There is an essential ritual in Georgia, called Mekvleoba. Mekvle or first foot is a person, who is the first to enter your house in the New Year and mostly I am always this first foot in my house and my grandparents’ house. I must say I am a fairly good Mekvle. This ritual has its own rules. First, the Mekvle must be chosen by the family. Secondly, first foot must enter the house with his right foot and lastly, while entering the house, the Mekvle must throw candy or fruit to the family members. The reason behind this, is that if this first foot does all these things, the family will have the greatest luck a bright future, and happiness. If you are a good Mekvle you must wish the family members happiness, success, and prosperity for the entire year.  

 The most annoying rule is that it is forbidden to eat any New Year associated dishes before the New Year. Georgians cook a lot of traditional dishes for the New Year’s feast including “Gozinaki” (a dessert made of walnuts and honey); “Satsivi” (a food paste made primarily from walnuts); “Churchkhela” (a candy made from grape juice and walnuts or hazelnuts); “khachapuri” (a traditional Georgian dish of cheese-filled bread); eggplant with walnuts and many more. 

 Unbelievably Georgians not only have two New Year’s but also two Christmas trees. One is a standard Christmas tree and the second one is called Chichilaki. It is made from hazelnut or walnut branches that are dried and shaved to form a small coniferous tree. They are decorated with flowers and fruit instead of shiny ornaments.  

Author: Elene Melkadze

Getting things done is often more difficult than you may think. You may have a strong desire to see positive changes in your life, including better grades, weight loss, or passing an educational course. To see and achieve the results you desire requires you to act fast from the very beginning of the year.  We all must understand that we have a responsibility to shape and improve our reality. Only after realizing this, can we set goals and change our lives for the better.

From my perspective, everyone’s New Year should be full of new goals, new challenges, and experiences.  Goal-setting is one of the most important things you can do to live the life you want for yourself. Unless we start talking about the benefits of it, we have to answer this one simple question: What are goals? 

Goals are ideas you have about what you want to do with your life. They help you to take aim at a desired result that is important to you, therefore setting goals allows us to gain control of our lives and stay focused. They help us decide what is more meaningful and right.

In addition, there is a psychological reason behind this, which is the next reason for setting a goal. A New Year gives us a sense of renewal, which causes us to think about areas in our life we want to improve or change. In preparation for 2023, we want to leave the chaos and need to have self-compassion, too.

Moreover, setting objectives for the New Year may be an effective method of self-motivation. It can motivate you to work harder and be more productive and feel pride and success. For instance, when I first started journaling about my plans for the year, I was still confused. At first I started to get frustrated because I realized I was trying to achieve unrealistic goals in an unrealistic time frame. Finally, I fixed my mistake and started doing less difficult tasks, which pushed me further and gave me more motivation to continue and never give up. I moved from the general to a much more specific and detailed goal, for example, before when I just wanted to have good grades, now I know that at the same time, I need to repeat lessons every day, fill out tests, and actively communicate 

As for my plans for 2023, they have changed a little. Successfully passing exams, improving my English level and increasing followers on my informational online page are still valid, and to this list was added spending more time with my friends and family, and learning how to play on piano and guitar.

To sum it all up, in my opinion, it has great importance to start the year successfully, set a goal, write it down and at the end of the year cross the line on the completed mission with a smile on your face.

Author: Kato Tsuladze

  Goals play quite an essential role in human lives. Life goals are all the things you want to accomplish in your life. They can be large and challenging or smaller and more personal.

 ”Why is it important to set goals?” The answer is that goals make your life meaningful and beautiful. It is one of the main keys to happiness, a feeling everyone is so desperate to have. Without goals in life, you have no determination, ambition or direction whatsoever. Here are 3 main reasons why goals are important: first, they help you determine what you want in life. When you know what you want to do, you try hard for your dream to come true. To make that happen, you need motivation. 

That leads us to the second reason of the importance of setting goals: it helps you stay motivated. Motivation is a pathway to change our way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Without it, there is a really low chance of achieving what you want and being happy. It is hard to get motivated, but really easy to get distracted. By the way, losing motivation is a really big problem for teenagers in the 21st century. This brings us to the third reason: setting goals keeps you focused. If you are focused on your dream and what you want to accomplish, then you are motivated and the power that motivation holds gives you strength to keep going no matter what and break all the barriers. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will”, said the American novelist and short-story writer Stephen King.

 Is it really necessary to set goals at the start of a new year? In my opinion it is. For me it is really important for each upcoming year to be productive. We don’t really know how much time we have to live and we should use and enjoy every second of our lives. “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses”, said Abraham Lincoln, 16^th president of the United States of America. At the start of each new year, I write a list of what I want to achieve in that year and try my best to fulfil my goal. To stay motivated, I am always focused on what I am doing and don’t get distracted easily. When I feel that I am failing to stay motivated, I realize what a positive impact accomplishing that goal will have on my life and it keeps me going. At the end of the year, I check my list of goals that I have achieved and I am proud of. I also review the goals that I haven’t completed and identify any problems that appeared while I was completing that goal. Then I try to solve it. This makes my life more meaningful and I am happy that each year is worth it.

Author: Keso Gagnidze

As we know, from every book we can learn a certain lesson about friendship, dignity, kindness, evil and so on… Every book contains something that could serve as our moral compass for life. I’ve read many books this year, but now I would like to discuss the book “White Fang” written by Jack London.

White Fang may seem to be an ordinary, typical book about animal (and human) abuse, but personally, when I read it, I was shocked by the things it may teach us, if we think about it “from the other side”. For example, in my opinion, White Fang might be a human too, but Jack London chose an animal to be the main character for two reasons: 

First – The book can be read and analyzed by young readers;

Second – The reader may draw a parallel with real life. A certain reader can imagine White Fang as a real person and analyze the book more deeply, from the “human” side.

So, these two types of readers look at the book from their point of view – for children – it is just a book about “bad” guys that abuse animals.

Consequently, children learn a lesson – “I should not be a “bad” guy, I should not abuse animals, I should not spill anger onto animals or people around me.”

The second type reader may analyze it the other way! For example:

“White Fang may be a person, that withstood the situation he was in and stayed strong, no matter he was abused many times, no matter he had to change places, no matter he lost his loved ones, no matter he became more aggressive than before – at the end he stayed strong, didn’t give up on his life and achieved peace and happiness, that means, I should do the same!”

I think you already understand that I am a second type of reader of this book. From this book I’ve learned that sometimes life puts us in difficult situations, and during that period we should show our strength and not our weakness, we should not give up but we should endure and adapt. A person can achieve everything, the only thing he needs is a will to do something and endurance.

To summarize, every person understands in books his own way, every person has his/her moral compass, from every book a person can learn something valuable. The most important thing is that each person should understand himself/herself and understand what is right and what is wrong.

Author: Niko Katamadze

Once Upon a Time, there was a cat named Garfield. He was the laziest cat in the neighborhood. He doesn’t like working at all. The only thing he likes to do is sleep and eat. He never likes sharing his food with the other cats in the neighborhood. His favorite food is lasagna. He lived in a big house with a man named John Arbuckle. John is Garfield’s owner. There was also a dog named Odie. 

10:00 AM…

It was a wonderful morning. John jumped out of bed. He rushed downstairs to wake Odie and Garfield up. 

-“What a great day to celebrate Christmas! Wake up guys! We will have guests this evening, so we better get ready!” Finally, we get to spend Christmas at home, but remember guys, you have to help me with the preparations!” said John. 

-“No thanks, I’d rather sleep!” -said Garfield.

“I’m going out for the groceries and then out to Vito’s to buy food for our guests. Who wants to come with me?” said John.

“Bark, bark!” barked Odie.

John and Odie got into their car and drove off. Garfield decided to take a little walk through the neighborhood.

While he was walking, he saw a few cats, begging for food. Garfield refused to share any of his food with the poor cats, no matter how much they begged him.

John and Odie finally came home. They parked the car and rushed into the house.

The dining table was all set, and the food’s smell was amazing. The doorbell rang and their guests arrived. When they approached the table to have dinner, they noticed that all the food had disappeared. Garfield ate everything! John took the guests to a restaurant since they didn’t have anything to eat. Garfield had to stay home since he was the cause of all these problems. He decided to take a nap.

“Wake up, you fool!” said a spirit.

“Where am I?” panicked Garfield.

You are in a castle of the Christmas Eve! We are the Christmas spirits! I am the king of the Christmas spirits. We are here to punish you for your awful mistakes!

“What got into you! You are so cute, but your actions are far from cute! We are sending you back in time and you have to fix all your mistakes and bad deeds before the bell rings. You only have one chance!” said the Queen of the Christmas spirits.

Garfield woke up and it was just before he stole the guest’s food. He rushed upstairs to wake John. When John and Odie left, Garfield took out the trash and even mopped the floor. He took a huge bag and put a lot of his own snacks in the bag. He went to the poor cats in his neighborhood and gave each of them some food to eat. When the guests arrived, he was respectful and kind during dinner. 

Suddenly, the bell rang and it was officially Christmas.

John was very happy with Garfield’s behavior and was so proud of his cat. Everyone was happy and celebrated the New Year together. 

“Thank you spirits, for giving me another chance! I feel much better!” thought Garfield happily.

Author: Giorgi Kakhiani

On the eve of the New Year, there is a big preparation in every family in Georgia. The main element of this holiday in our country is a table full of traditional food. Gozinaki is a sweet that can be found in every home on New Year’s day. Georgians love this sweet made with honey and nuts. The dish that is prepared in almost every family in Georgia on New Year’s Day is Sacivi. Sometimes they cook so much that they eat it for a whole month.

The second day of the New Year is the “Bedoba”. According to the tradition, it’s important how you spend your day because the whole year will be the same as this day. That’s why Georgians try to be happy on this day, have joy and bring a little luck into their lives.

New Year in China

Chinese New Year is a special holiday. It starts on the first new moon of the Chinese calendar between January 21 and February 19. The Chinese believe that it is very important to have a clean house on New Year’s Day.  Chinese people don’t sweep the floor, as they think they will sweep away good luck in the process. 

My teacher is Chinese. She taught me a lot about the culture and traditions of her country. Every New Year she receives red envelopes from China. There is money in the envelopes. Elderly Chinese give such envelopes to children and unmarried people at New Year. Chinese use traditional art to decorate their homes and streets for the New Year.

New Year in Brazil

Brazilians, like other people, celebrate the New Year in their own way. They wear white clothes on New Year’s Eve to symbolize peace and the hope that the coming year will be better than the one just ending. At midnight Brazilians run to the sea-shore and jump seven times while making wishes and throwing flowers into the ocean.

In Brazil, people must wear colored underwear on New Year’s. Brazilians choose the color carefully, because they all have different meanings.

white = peace and harmony

blue = tranquility and friendship

yellow = money and luck

pink = love

orange = professional success

Green = health
purple = inspiration

Of course, all countries have different ways and times to celebrate the New Year. I want to say a lot more about New Year’s traditions, but unfortunately I can’t. One thing I am sure of is that no matter how people celebrate the New Year, the main thing is that they meet it full of joy and hope.

Author: Ketevan Chargazia

For some people books are the only way to escape their problems and feel something that they do not feel in reality. They imagine and see everything described in the book in their own way. Reading a book can help enrich your vocabulary and your imagination. It also helps you to express your thoughts and opinions. Some people prefer watching movies. They visually see the characters and places where the action takes place, so they do not have to imagine everything. 

Watching movies in a foreign language helps you learn a new language. You learn new words, how to pronounce them correctly, accents, etc.

In my opinion both are good for us and it just depends on the person. If the movie is based on a book, very often the book is more detailed and we have more information about some things that are not described or even shown in the movie. This makes a book more interesting, but sometimes it can happen the other way around. The perfect example of this is the book “All the boys I’ve loved before” and the movie which is based on this book. The movie was good too, but nothing compared to the original book. The book was more interesting, because every single thing was detailed and described fantastically and the story was longer and more interesting, which we can not say about the movie. As I already mentioned, it was good but it lacked something, the book didn’t. The movie was shorter and some moments were omitted, which I did not really like, because I was looking forward to seeing those moments. 

At last all I can say is that it depends on a person whether they like the book more or the movie. It is a very individual thing. Both have benefits and can help in many ways. I suggest doing both – first read the original book and then watch the movie. This way you can compare the two and decide which one is better.

Author: Mariam Abuseridze

Let’s talk about a book that teaches us a lesson.

I have chosen Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, written by Jonathan Safran Foer. It was written in 2005 and it’s the second novel by the author. This book is about a family in New York City, and what happened to them after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11^th 2001. 

In my opinion this book teaches us that we cannot have one without the other. There is a sentence in the book that supports my opinion. 

“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness”. I think this is really meaningful and useful in life and it can change many life plans.

Now let’s discuss an interesting question. Books or movies – which is better?

Everyone has their opinion about this question. Some prefer movies because of some specific reasons, and some prefer books. I really like to watch movies, chill and enjoy seeing all those cool scenes.

Even after that I still prefer to read books and there are some reasons why.

Reading can improve our focus, memory, communication skills and writing skills.

It reduces your stress and helps you to relax. Reading improves your creativity, imagination and vocabulary.

Now I will support my opinion through my favorite book: The Speckled Band and other stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

”The bullet which wounded Mrs Cubitt had gone into her brain.”

“Hilton Cubitt had been shot through

       the heart.”

Read these quotes and imagine these scenarios. By doing this, you instantaneously improved your imagination and creativity. 

Now, let’s discuss books and movies  and the similarities and differences between the two.

I have chosen a book called Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen which has also been turned into a movie. 

The similarities between the book and movie version of this story include the characters, scenarios, conversations and personalities.

The differences are the relationships between the characters. In the movie, Elizabeth keeps secrets from her family and they grow apart. In the book this is not the case. Elizabeth was more mature in the book and the Bennet’s are poorer but more likable. Darcy’s proposals were way more romantic in the movie, and the movie didn’t end with a wedding.

I liked the book more, because it was more interesting. I liked the end and it was a lot more dramatic than the movie.

Now let’s analyze a character from the book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Oskar Schell is a nine year old boy who is able to roam the city by himself and who asks profoundly deep questions; in fact, it’s almost unrealistic. I contend that Oskar is strange and bizarre, and is a relatable character on multiple levels.

For one, Oskar is imaginative and always concocting inventions in his head. For instance, Oskar imagines a kettle that would sing “Yellow Submarine” in the opening of the novel. For Oskar, his imagination is an escape from what is real – in this case, his father’s death and inevitably, his own death. Haven’t we all resorted to our imaginations during times of tragedy? Oskar is inherently a spacey and inquisitive boy who isn’t afraid of his own thoughts. He doesn’t stifle his curiosity in fear of disapproval. He resorts to imagination to abate his agony and he fires away with questions when something doesn’t make sense to him. He doesn’t necessarily think before he asks questions. Oskar is the epitome of an average child in terms of his behavior and in terms of his thoughts. Consequently, Foer creates Oskar in the image of children who had to grow up without a father or a fatherly-figure after 9/11. There is a little bit of Oskar in all of us if we examine closely enough.

His motivation is the curiosity of the circumstances surrounding his father’s death. He wants to find out how his father died. 

Author: Ana Valievi

   In August of 2022  I went to a camp abroad for the first time on my own. For my independence it was a great experience. I must admit that I had a good time there. I was in Rhodes, Greece. It is truly a beautiful place to visit. I met new amazing people at the camp. They were really friendly. I am still in contact with them. We visited many places including The Palace of the Grand Master, Seven Springs, the Valley of Butterflies and the most wonderful place, where the Mediterranean and Aegean seas meet, it was the most beautiful view I have ever seen. I was there for 22 days and I truly enjoyed being there.

It was remarkable when I first saw the sea. It was so transparent and the water was extremely salty. My favorite day was the day we visited the Seven Springs. The most exciting part of it was the journey. To get there we had to go through a tunnel  filled with freezing water reaching all the way up to my ankles . Obviously there was no light and that made it more fun and mysterious. After we walked out of the tunnel I couldn’t feel my feet. Our leaders escorted us to the springs. it was a beautiful view.

For me this day was so memorable and exciting that I would never get bored of it, even if it repeats over and over again. The nature around me was beautiful and everything together created a beautiful landscape. I will definitely revisit Rhodes in the future.

Author: Kesaria Tedoradze

Both books and movies narrate stories, share comparable organizational frameworks, and have underlying themes or core ideas. Movies tell tales by using audio and visual sequences with trained performers and technicians, who piece the whole thing together. Contrarily, books use vivid language to enrich the story and build tension that may hold a reader’s attention until the very end to bring their stories to life. 

I always prefer reading over watching a movie. Our ability to think clearly and be creative is enhanced by reading. Reading a book might help you use your imagination to picture the events that are taking place in the story.

When reading a book, a person genuinely conjures up a scene in his head, which enhances his ability to think clearly since the brain is always at work. A person watching a movie is experiencing it live, so he is free to focus solely on enjoying the scenes.

The sole purpose of movies is for enjoyment. However, only a small portion of the book’s content could be used in the movie adaptation. To make the movie engaging, other elements must be added. Additionally, not everything is covered in the film. Which implies that the story’s content has been substantially changed.

Movies typically have a finite runtime. Since they only last two to three hours, they must move quickly to finish it within the allotted time. Although books might take more time and be lengthier. As a result, the movies exclude a lot of information.

Books are always accessible and may be read whenever you want. Reading books widens our knowledge and enhances our vocabulary.

You can’t get the same level of story depth from seeing a movie as you can from reading a book. We learn to read and study from books as children, and even the alphabet was one of the first things we learnt through books. Now it’s up to you to decide if you want to watch a movie or read a book.

Author: Lizi Urtashvili