May 24. The Big Day
This was the wedding day, the reason we had traveled to Georgia.
But first we did some touring. We got on the bus with the tour guide shortly after 10 (This group, like most, does not get started at the scheduled time. There are some who are always timely and others who are chronically late and even then, there is usually someone who has to make some last minute change. Just one of the things that one has to accept and put up with if you travel with a group.)
The bus took us to Mtskheta, a small town about 40 km north of Tbilisi. This area is the cradle of Georgian religion and culture, since it is the place where St. Nino converted the early Georgian kingdom to Christianity in the 4th century and it was the capital for about 2 centuries, until that was moved to Tbilisi. Plus it has several old and spiritually important religious buildings (some of which have been placed on UNESCO's Danger list). So our pre ceremony activities consisted of church viewings.
The first was Jvari Church. This sits high on a hill and is visible for miles. The road up to the church has lots of switchbacks. It is a small building that goes back to the 7th century. It marks the spot where in the 4th century King Mirian erected a cross to mark his conversion to Christianity by St. Nino. From the church you can see the town below, with its many churches and the convergence of the Aragvi and Mtkvari rivers, which were flowing pretty swiftly.
St. Nino was born in western Turkey, the daughter of a Roman general. At age 14 she experienced a vision telling her to convert the Iverians (predecessors to the present day Georgians) to Christianity. She went to Iveria, performed some good deeds and miracles, and when she saved Queen Nana with her prayers from a serious illness, she got the attention of King Mirian. When she restored his sight after blindness from a hunting accident, he made Christianity Iveria's official religion in 327. It became the second kingdom to officially convert to Christianity.
Next we went to Samtavro Church. It is a large church that was built in the 12th century and has some kings and queens buried on the grounds. It also has a small church on the grounds marking the spot where St. Nino prayed in the 4th century. It survived the Soviet period by serving as an orphanage.
Finally the wedding. It took place at the Svetitskhoveil Cathedral. This dates from the 11th century. It is a very large building surrounded by a large defensive wall. Tradition teaches that Christ's robe is buried beneath the Cathedral. The story goes that a Jew from Mtakheta was in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion and returned with the robe. He gave it to his sister who promptly died in a passion of faith. The robe was buried with her and when it was decided to build a church there, the large center column could not be raised. However, with St. Nino's prayers it was miraculously both raised and moved to the sister's burial site.
Enough about old buildings. The wedding in the Cathedral was something out of a Hollywood movie. The priest had a long gray beard, flowing robes and an ornate headpiece (which must have been very hot since when he took it off his hair was plastered to his head with sweat.) The groom wore a traditional Georgian military uniform with metal canisters across his chest that were either bullet canisters or cigar holders. The couple wore golden crowns during a portion of the ceremony and there was kissing of walls and frescoes. A central feature seemed to be three processions around the alter. A pretty grand and ritualized performance.
Then off to the wedding party. It was held at a beautifully landscaped facility. There were some preliminary drinks (brandy and chacha) and food, but when the seated dinner began I was overwhelmed. Throughout the evening the food and drink never stopped flowing. The table was loaded with a dozen dishes when we arrived and more kept coming. We had missed lunch and so I was hungry and began to eat too much. I slowed down to try to taste each dish, but gradually succumbed to at first sloth and then culinary paralysis. Periodic trips outside to the grounds for cigars and some more drinks were the only thing that kept me vertical. There was no dessert except the wedding cake, but I would have been too stuffed to eat it. A real culinary celebration. I was told by the groom that in the past such feasts were accompanied by a feather that guests would use to induce vomiting and then they would return to the food.
There was a local troupe of dancers in traditional costumes as entertainment, as well as singers who offered up a mixture of western (several Sinatra songs) and Georgian music. I think the guests were about 20% American, 65% Georgian and 15% other nations. I counted Russians, Ukrainians, Swedes among the attendees. Several of the younger women wore little black dresses, which cross borders very nicely.
It seems as if the Georgians largely did not mix with the others. They were probably extended family and I think that most did not speak English. Lots of dancing by the guests, some traditional Georgian, and even Conga lines and circles of dancers who took turns being in the middle "hot spot." I was particularly struck by two 20-something sisters, probably cousins of the groom, whom we noticed in the Cathedral, who did not wear head scarves and one wore a bare shouldered dress. We wondered how they got away with that.
By 10 we were exhausted. The bus took us back to our hotel where we promptly collapsed into bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment