Christmas march ends in Tbilisi

A celebratory Christmas march through Georgia's capital city was hugely successful and generated hundreds of gifts for the less fortunate, despite one participant causing   a stir.

Hundreds of people took part in the christmas march, called 'Alilo', today. The march started at the Rose Square at 2pm. Participants sang Christmas carols as they walked down the city streets gathering donated gifts or candy.

The Catholicons Patriarch of Georgia greeted the march participants at the Patriarchy building, blessed them and donated candy. Earlier in the march, the group stopped in front of the Parliament building where Parliamentary Speaker David Usupashvili and other Members of Parliamemt gifted them with candy baskets.

"We are all happy today. All of us enjoys Christmas and New Year and we are sure the new year will bring many good news for many families and make our wishes come true," Usupashvili said.

"We also have to contribute to this process. So, on our side, we promise that we will work hard and do our job well throughout the year, he said.

Meanwhile representatives of the parliamentary minority did not participate in the Alilo gifting process.

As the march passed the Parliament building, participants stopped at the Tbilisi City Council building and were gifted with sweets by council members.

Shortly after this, a female participant of the march was criticized for her poster protesting the Patriarchys position about artificial insemination. This was in response to words by his Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II when he condemned artificial insemination and surrogacy in his Christmas epistle.

Other participants claimed the woman had no right to come to the religious celebration with this kind of poster, and her behavior had abused the holy day. The woman at the centre of the issue, Tamar Khachapuridze, said she was defending the rights of the children born through artificial insemination. Shortly after she decided to stop participating in the march because others were aggressive towards her.

The march originated in ancient times although it has again become popular in Georgia in recent years. The gifts and sweets gathered today by the Alilo participants will be later distributed to orphanages and shelters for the poor.