Georgians - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs and Practices . Most Georgians belong to the Georgian Orthodox church; Ajarians and the Georgians of Turkey are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi rite. A small group of Georgians in Azerbaijan, the Ingilos, are Shiites, as are the Fereidanian Georgians of Iran. About 25,000 Georgian Jews live in Georgia. Georgians, especially those of the mountains, also maintain cults of local deities and traditions of honoring the spirits of ancestors. These older traditions, Christian beliefs, and even Mazdaist and Muslim ideas, have fused in different proportions in different regions. In addition, Georgian academies of the golden age embraced Neoplatonism and established a strong tradition of humanism that continues today. The autocephalous Georgian Orthodox church was incorporated into that of Russia in czarist times, then mostly suppressed under Soviet rule; celebrations in the countryside have thus been left to families. Georgians are now renovating churches and reestablishing services. The church patriarch (presently Ilia II) has reemerged as an important national figure.

Georgian churches are dominated by an iconostasis, traditionally made of elaborately carved stone, pierced by three ceremonial doors and set with icons of Mary, Christ, John the Baptist, and other saints and angels. Georgians associate knowledge, faith, light, and the Holy Spirit; baptism and subsequent mysteries (sacraments) are understood as growing enlightenment. Major Georgian Orthodox holidays are Easter, Christmas, New Year's, the Day of Souls, and days to honor Mary, Saint Nino, Saint George, and Georgia's old capital and religious center, Mtskheta. Holidays are celebrated with processions, special services, sacrifices, offerings of wine and bread, and periods of fasting and feasting.

Georgia's traditional pantheon consisted of an all-encompassing god ( ghmerti ) and a host of lesser deities called angels, saints, or icons ( khat'i ) . Most likely these represent the cults of earlier pagan deities modified and renamed under the influence of Christianity. These included the many incarnations of Saint George, dragon slayer and chief protector of humankind; the Svan hunting goddess Dali; Tamar, queen and conqueror, associated with the sun; Saint Barbara, patron of fertility and healing; K'op'ala, victor over the race of demons; Saint Mary; the Archangel Michael; and even Christ as ruler of the underworld. Each saint (or version of a saint) has its own sanctuary, holiday, and (in pre-Soviet times) lands and families of attendants. The sanctuary belongs to the local community, but pilgrims from other regions (including representatives of some non-Georgian peoples) also bring sheep to sacrifice and join in feasting. Many churches have been built on mountains or near sacred trees and groves. According to myth, the shrines are linked to heaven by invisible chains, along which the saint travels in the form of a bird, winged cross, or light. In the mountains, standards topped with crosses were kept in the sanctuaries and were carried on raids and used to draw out drowned souls. In some mountain localities one can still see stone shrines adorned with antlers, drinking horns, and other offerings (metal objects, bullets) left by petitioners.

Arts. Through the eighteenth century, the Georgian high arts developed in connection with those of Persia, Byzantium, and Armenia. Old churches, still revered and reproduced today, are cruciform or octagonal with alternating square and rounded masses piling up to a central tower with a conical roof. Doors, friezes, and altar screens are carved with geometrical designs, human figures, and birds and beasts; inside walls have frescoes in red and blue. Medieval Georgia is also famous for cloisonné enamel icons and repoussé metal frames, crosses, cups, and arms in silver and gold; the country retains many fine metalsmiths and jewelers. Men's traditional dress was a tightly belted woolen tunic and trousers tucked into soft leather boots; women wore silk or cotton gowns with flared hems and sleeves. Only the mountaineer Khevsur now wear their embroidered costumes in ordinary life, but tailoring and leather-working traditions remain strong. Pottery, wood carving, and knitting are also all old and popular arts in Georgia.

The eleventh to thirteenth centuries were Georgia's artistic golden age. The masterpiece of this period, Shota Rustaveli's romantic verse-epic Vepkhist'q'aosani (The Knight in the Leopard Skin) remains the Georgians' most beloved work of literature, both for its language and for the ideal picture of society it presents. Other classical works, many still read today, are lives of saints, historical chronicles, works of philosophy, love lyrics, and narrative poems of romance, history, and reflection. There are also many translations and retellings of literature from other countries. The silver age of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries brought a renaissance of poetry, the introduction of printing, the first monumental dictionary of the Georgian language, and works of history and criticism that established modern scholarship. Georgian folklore includes myths, historical tales, stories featuring literary characters, fairy tales, fables, battle epics, love poems, songs of mourning, work songs, humorous poems, lullabies, and hymns. Festive suppers are favorite times for songs, and winter evenings for stories.

Georgians have a distinct tradition of polyphonic a cappella folk singing, sung by men divided into two or three main voices and up to four additional voices. Other song styles need just one voice and are sung to instrumental accompaniment. Tbilisi has given rise to a genre of urban folk songs, many written by nineteenth-century poets. Traditional Georgian instruments include three-stringed mandolins and lutes, pipes, clarinets, drums, and, in various areas, bagpipes, panpipes, and harps. Medieval Georgians enjoyed chamber music and had a system of musical notation. In Georgian dances men imitate the art of war—leaping, spinning, and battling with swords; women move proudly and gracefully, with elaborate movements of their hands. Men and women never touch each other while dancing. Often the company makes a ring, clapping or revolving while individuals show off in the center. In sports Georgians excel at wrestling, fencing, equestrian events, and chess (especially women's chess, which has been dominated by Georgians for the past two decades); soccer is also extremely popular.

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Georgian arts came under Western influence. Many Georgians have excelled in painting, sculpture, lyric and narrative poetry, fiction, symphonic music, opera, ballet, theater, and cinema. Professional artists draw heavily on folk themes, and their work is known to people from all walks of life. Georgian painters and sculptors favor portraits and scenes of gatherings; many use strong, sharp lines and give their subjects an impression of weight. Among painters of the postwar period, Lado Gudiashvili has pride of place; the naive painter Niko Pirosmanishvili has become famous for his murals in cellar restaurants depicting scenes from urban and village life. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Georgian poets and novelists turned from romantic to realistic styles; common subjects remain the fate of the country, historical episodes, everyday life, and intense portraits of character and emotion. Important poets of earlier generations include Nikoloz Baratashvili, Ak'ak'i Ts'ereteli, Galak't'ion T'abidze, and those of the symbolist "blue horn" circle. Perhaps the greatest poet of the modern period is the early-twentieth-century writer Vazha-Pshavela, whose poems were inspired by the epic oral literature of his native mountains.

Medicine . Georgians go both to state clinics and to doctors who use traditional remedies. Certain families are famous for their knowledge of curing; recipes and rituals are also found in old books. Georgians traditionally had shamans who fell into trances and prescribed cures in the voice of a local deity. Similarly, some women could speak in the voices of the dead. Some Georgians fear old women's curses and unhappy local and ancestral spirits, blaming them for illness or bad fortune. Many believe in the healing powers of mineral-water drinks and baths. Old women see their families' futures written in dreams in standard sets of signs; some are also known as fortune-tellers. Many women like to get together in winter, drink coffee, and tell fortunes from the grounds. Mountain priests used to divine the future from shoulder bones of sacrificed animals. Many Georgians consider certain days of the week lucky or unlucky for doing certain household tasks or for individuals in their lives.

Death and Afterlife. Georgians want very much to die in the company of their families and be buried in their native land. As a person is dying, relatives place a bowl of water beside the bed and open a window, so the soul can be clean and fly away. On the third, fourth, and fifth days after death, hundreds, or even thousands, come to pay their respects; a priest is also called, if one is available. A candle burns behind the head of the corpse and grains of wheat are strewn alongside; the women of the family sob and lament, the men stand quietly. For the burial, the pall-bearers carry the coffin three times around the room, then knock on the door and let themselves out. The family follows with wine and special dishes. That evening neighbors organize a large funeral banquet; the toasts must total an odd number. Forty days after death, the family celebrates the soul's departure for the other world; on the first anniversary, they mark the end of mourning. Thereafter, on anniversaries, on holidays, and especially on the Day of Souls, people return to the cemetery and have a small supper, including toasts and offerings to those who have passed away. A person in mourning consumes no milk or meat and wears black. Some women mourn husbands or brothers their entire lives, but young widows and widowers often remarry. In folklore Georgians associated death with journeys to the west, into caves, and through water. They envisioned the afterlife as a dim, shadowy replica of the present one: the dead sit at a vast banquet at which they do not eat, drink, or speak. Souls maintain family loyalties and still crave food, drink, and, according to some, clothing and entertainment. Their well-being depends on their character in this world, and their relatives' continuing care. Georgians also have Christian ideas of a heaven and hell.