{"id":4520,"date":"2021-01-03T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T06:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=145581"},"modified":"2021-01-03T06:00:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T06:00:32","slug":"holiday-greetings-from-georgia-home-of-the-worlds-oldest-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/03\/holiday-greetings-from-georgia-home-of-the-worlds-oldest-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Greetings From Georgia, Home Of The ‘World’s Oldest Christmas Tree’"},"content":{"rendered":"
As part of an occasional series on how the end-of-year holidays are celebrated in some parts of our broadcast region, we talked to Okropir Rukhadze from RFE\/RL’s Georgian Service about how Christmas is celebrated in his country. As a festival with deep roots in Georgia, it is marked by some distinctive age-old traditions and a seasonal feast that showcases the depth and variety of the local cuisine.<\/em><\/p>\n As Georgians converted to Christianity in the fourth century, it’s perhaps not surprising that many deep-rooted Christmas customs evolved there over time. Some of them are still going strong today, despite being suppressed during decades of “atheist” Soviet rule.<\/p>\n One of the most quintessentially Georgian traditions, which has enjoyed a revival in recent years, is the “chichilaki” (\u10e9\u10d8\u10e9\u10d8\u10da\u10d8\u10d9\u10d8). Sometimes described as the “world’s oldest Christmas tree,”<\/a><\/strong> it’s something Georgians have been making since ancient times.<\/p>\n “Georgians have their own Christmas tree; it\u2019s very unique,” says Okropir Rukhadze from RFE\/RL’s Georgian Service. “Even the Georgian president has asked UNESCO for it be put on humanity’s cultural heritage list<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/p>\n Originating in the west of the country, it is now popular everywhere in Georgia, including in the capital, Tbilisi, where “everyone loves it and likes it,” says Rukhadze, describing the annual production of chichilaki as “something very traditional.”<\/p>\n To make chichilaki, Rukhadze says, Georgians “pick a branch of hazelnut — or walnut, but hazelnut is better — and shave it to produce something that looks like a small coniferous tree.”<\/p>\n “When you shave the branch in this way, it becomes white and as long as a hair — this is chichilaki,” says Rukhadze, adding that practically all Georgian households have these “trees” during the Christmas period, usually decorated with fruits, berries, flowers, and sweets, as well as religious symbols such as crosses and angels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n