See agenda.ge top 5 Christmas and New Year's Eve long-reads
See agenda.ge stories ranging from overviews of Christmas and New Year celebrations in Georgia to lesser-known festive season stories.
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With the 2018 festive season, agenda.ge marks its fifth New Year's Eve of publishing. To mark the occasion, we have selected our top five articles and reports from our archives between 2013-2018 - have a look at Christmas and New Year stories we have been writing below.
From festive gifts you can find during the season in Georgia, to a retrospective of celebrations down the decades, we have published stories centred around the special time of the year since our launch.
One of our earliest long-reads, by Tamar Khurtsia and Anastasia Zurabishvili, offers a view back on New Year's Eve traditions from ancient times up to this day:
Georgian New Year celebration traditions from ancient to nowadays
Ethnologist Gvantsa Archvadze talks about Georgian festive season traditions while displaying items and products of traditional New Year's Eve celebration in the country. Photo: Nino Alavidze/agenda.ge.
The subject of marking festive celebrations in Georgia throughout contemporary history is also explored in our multimedia project:
New Year Celebrations in Georgia 1895-2015
During the same 2013 season, a story of Roman Catholic celebrations of Christmas in Georgia, by Lali Tsertsvadze, introduced readers to the community and its customs.
As the Catholic community is not too large in Tbilisi, nearly everyone knows each other. After the Christmas mass, Georgian Catholics have the tradition of having a Christmas dinner together in the church yard", the story reads:
Georgian Christmas tale
A miniature nativity scene at the Roman Catholic family of Zhvanias in Georgia. Photo: Nino Alavidze/agenda.ge.
During festive season in Georgia, visitors can always discover new spots for tasting local New Year's Eve food or souvenirs - agenda.ge's Genevieve Helliwell offered her take on handmade crafts and delights in her December 2015 story.
Genevieve's article goes through a number of easy-to-access locations and stores in Tbilisi that offer products, spirits and craft items for celebratory mood:
Your complete Georgian Christmas, New Year’s Eve guide
Handmade craft figures and items in one of Tbilisi's shops visited by Genevieve Helliwell for her story.
Next, a little-known story about Georgia's major contribution to European Christmas tree industry was delivered over the 2016 festive days by Lali Tsertsvadze.
In late September every year, [locals of] Georgia’s remote Racha region [...] climb 40-60 metre-tall pine trees to collect cones that are later processed to produce seeds. These seeds are then sold to mainly Danish companies, making Denmark Europe’s largest Christmas tree exporter," she reported in her piece:
With love, from Georgia to your living room
Western Georgia's Racha province provides a major share of European Christmas tree exports. Photo: Fair Trees.
Happy reading!
Over 200 popular local artists will celebrate New Year’s Eve with crowds in a gala concert on Tbilisi’s First Republic Square on Monday.On a stage set in the Christmas Village on the Square, the four-hour show will launch at 11pm and go well into the night to mark the onset of 2019.
From theatrical shows to artist concerts, open-air fairs and exhibition of countryside products, Georgia’s capital is celebrating the festive season for locals and visitors with a lot to see and experience.
The festive season has again sparked creative talent among Christmas tree decorators across Georgia, from fire department personnel throughout the country creating trees from their equipment to an upcoming showcase of quirky designs at the Christmas Tree Festival in capital Tbilisi.
A new promotional video for one of Georgia's most iconic countryside locations shows Mestia, a town of Svaneti highland province covered in snow and hosting holiday-goers as the winter season officially opened last week.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze wished Georgian citizens good health, success and lots of reasons for happiness in 2019. Bakhtadze expressed hope that this year will be more fruitful for Georgia and its citizens.
President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili has sent her first New Year wishes as the president of the country from the new presidential palace – Orbeliani Palace.
While a major part of Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations has already taken place, locals and visitors in Tbilisi can look for more daily entertainment events in the city’s Christmas Village, to mark the Orthodox Christmas and the Old New Year dates.
A Christmas village will not be arranged in central Tbilisi for the upcoming holidays this year, with the funds going instead to help poor families for the New Year’s and Christmas holidays, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze stated earlier today.