III. Svanetian Svimnish 13-15 February

The Georgian equivalent of Mardi Gras takes place on the first day of Lent (see the photos from Mat'ani), but the Svans of northwest highland Georgia celebrate a carnival-like festival in mid-February. Our hosts were two sisters from the Ioseliani family of Laxiri (Mulax commune) in Upper Svaneti, who were resettled in Jandara, near the Azeri border. Rusudan (in the jeans jacket to my right in the first photo) works at the Linguistics Institute in Tbilisi, and her sister Xatuna (in black, next to Rusiko in the 2nd photo) is an ethnologist. The evening before the festival, the women baked special cheese-filled bread (lemzir). The men presented offerings of vodka & candles in the church, led by Rost'om Ioseliani (wearing a leather jacket, at the left of the 6th photo). A bull was also offered, then slaughtered to provide meat for the feast. After nightfall, the men lit a bonfire by the church. Rost'om smeared his face with soot & transformed into Pusd K'esar ("Lord Caesar"), the Carnival King. Armed with a paddle, he bonked people on the head and clowned around. Meanwhile, each man & boy (including one foreign guest) was hoisted up by his feet and arms, and spanked on the backside with a smouldering wood plank -- this is said by the Svans to provide protection from evil spirits. Some time later, the men led by "Lord Caesar" marched back to the Ioseliani's homestead & carried out a simulated invasion, storming into the courtyard and circling another bonfire while singing and holding candles. After this, everyone sat down for a huge banquet. Three women who had recently married into the Ioseliani clan were presented to Lord Caesar as his "wives", at least for one night ... Fortunately for Rusudan and Xatuna and their poor exhausted mother, the families of Laxiri take turns hosting Svimnish. They will not have to worry about feeding two hundred or more guests, and cleaning up afterward, until 2045 at the earliest!