Easter Feast

It was pretty important to me that I spend Easter with my host family, especially since I hadn't experienced a proper Georgian feast. Other volunteers said that their families had thrown supras for them, but my family had yet to do so for me. I think the reasons were that none of my family members are big drinkers and that they may not be able to afford one.

On Sunday afternoon I went for a nice long walk with my host sister and her cousin. At the top of a nearby hill there are two abandoned, yellow, cement buildings that overlook Nukriani. They were originally used to house summer campers, but in 2008 Abkhazian refugees were temporarily settled there. We checked out the buildings and ventured into the coniferous forest beyond.

When we returned from the walk, the table was set with all sorts of good things. For meat there was chicken and uncooked ham. For vegetables there were beets cooked in t'kemali, shredded carrots mixed with mayo, pickled jonjoli, and potato salad. The main part of the meal was t'olma, a meat and rice mixture wrapped in cabbage, and p'ask'a, Georgian Easter bread, which is surprisingly like Portuguese sweet bread. There were three kinds of p'ask'a: regular, with jam, and with walnuts and sugar. The one with jam was the best in my opinion. There were also red eggs, tonis puri, suluguni cheese, and khachapuri. For beverages there was Pepsi, wine, and cornel juice. I started off with wine, but when I noticed that none of the other women were drinking, I switched over to the juice, which was much tastier.

The only traditions worth noting were that they lit a substance and let the smoke waft over the table and they burned a candle in the p'ask'a. Also, the seating arrangements weren't cool. All of the men sat at a slightly higher table and the women sat at a lower adjacent table. Gender issues much?

The conversation at the table was interesting. I could tell that my host mother's sister was talking about politics, and I heard her say that she didn't like the president, and my host mother was definitely surprised to hear her sister say that. Realistically, my host aunt is far more informed than my host mother because the aunt lives in Tbilisi and has access to more information. Out in the villages, there are very few TV channels, and they definitely seem to glorify Georgia. It's a little over the top. Also, a few weeks ago, my Georgian friend from Tbilisi mentioned that the media is censored, so unless you have satellite TV and can watch Maestro, an opposition channel, then you're sort of in the dark. I found it sort of silly that my host mother then turned to me for my opinion. I mean, I don't know a whole lot about Georgian politics, and I feel pretty nonchalant about it.

The other topic of conversation that I somewhat picked up on was about the Svan and Mingrelian languages. Once I realized what they were talking about, I had my host sister translate for me. Apparently, the adults were saying that they thought it was wrong for Georgians to speak these languages. Because of Georgia's history, I understand how important unity is, and a common language can certainly help people identify with each other. At the same time, Svan and Mingrelian are dying languages, and I'm really into languages, so I didn't offer an opinion.