Easter Celebration

I'm a little late updating from Easter, although the other PCVs in Georgia might not realize it. The Armenian church celebrated Easter at the same time as the non-Orthodox Christian churches (Catholic, Protestant, etc.), so last week, on Sunday, April 8 we celebrated Easter in Akhalkalaki. Orthodox churches celebrated this past weekend, on Sunday, April 15. Last year, the two branches of Christianity celebrated Easter on the same day, April 24, but this year there was a week difference. Here's why.

Since last year we were off doing other things during Easter (like going to my little sister's wedding!), this was our first time seeing the celebrations in Akhalkalaki. It's some pretty cool stuff, with some shared traditions and some very different traditions.

Last Easter

First, on some shared traditions, we've got egg dying. In Georgia, as in many parts of Eastern Europe, the traditional color for dying eggs is red. Here in Akhalkalaki, they use either onion skins or some kind of red-colored root (whose name I didn't recognize) to dye their eggs. In other parts of Eastern Europe, they use beets. The brightly colored eggs and shrink wrappers of my childhood are still sometimes found here (the kids especially love these kind of eggs), but most people still stick with the traditional red for most eggs.

Shaen and his grandmother, Emilia, prepare the eggs for dying

They wrapped pieces of parsley around the eggs, then held it in place with old pantyhose, to make cool designs on the eggs

Getting ready to dye

Some of our host family's finished eggs

Dying the eggs isn't the only fun part of Easter eggs in Akhalkalaki and Georgia, though. On Easter, people choose their favorite egg (or one that they decorated) and do battle. They crack their eggs against one another to see whose egg will stand up to the test (and thus, who will have good luck in the coming year, plus bragging rights, of course).

Akop, Armine, and Shaen try to explain the game to Lilit

Once she got the idea, she started off on a rampage, cracking all the eggs she could get her hands on against one another

Shaen's friend, and our neighbor, David, came over to test out his lucky egg against Shaen. The first victory went to David, but on the other end of the eggs, Shaen had the upper hand.

There are a lot of other similarities in some of the non-religious Easter symbolism, with chicks, ducks, and bunnies ruling the decor. Our host family really got into the season by purchasing a battery-operated chicken that plays a really annoying song while walking and then laying eggs. It's been great. Really. I love having it around. Seriously. If no pictures or videos of it appear here, I swear it has nothing to do with any kind of sudden, unexpected disappearance. Really.

Some cute table decorations that don't play annoying music

And of course, like any good holiday in Akhalkalaki, Easter also comes with doing up a big, fancy tablescape of decorations and food. One of the must-have foods of Easter is a sweet bread, laced with raisins and dotted with sprinkles. Another is Armenian gata (which in Akhalkalaki is made with a savory filling instead of a sweet filling, as it's done in Armenia). Our host family also says that they also always eat fish and rice pilaf for Easter. Our pilaf was a special ghapama, a tasty treat that Sam and I have been really fortunate to enjoy here many times.

The table transforming into an Easter table

Some Easter gata and ghapama

More Easter decorations (including one egg that Lilit got ahold of)

There isn't a tradition of having the Easter bunny come and hide eggs for good little boys and girls here. I really like the Easter bunny, though, and we decided to share one of our favorite Easter traditions with our host family as well. Sam and I didn't have any plastic eggs to fill with candy, but really wanted to have an egg hunt for our host siblings, so we improvised. Our "eggs" were just plastic baggies filled with candy and color coded with post-it notes to keep straight whose goodies were whose, but the spirit of the thing was there. We explained everything to a very excited Shaen, who helped keep the others in line for the hunt.

Our improvised plastic eggs, hidden for the Easter egg hunt

Shaen, searching out the last of his "eggs"

Lilit was really most excited about showing off her loot to her grandmother and me after the egg hunt finished

Shaen and Amalka preferred to go through their loot in privacy, though

In all, it was a really nice holiday filled with lots of food and good times with our host family. Not so dissimilar from a holiday at home, really. And, although the message may be a little late (and the video sideways), Lilit has something to say to all: