USHBA 2: The Supra

The Supra is the most special and important meal one can attend in Georgia. It’s not just a meal, but a time for open prayer, led by the Tamada (Toastmaster). In many ways, it reflects Georgian life and culture.

There are three important elements in the Supra: the Tamada, the wine and food, and the people. It’s very relational. The Tamada leads the toasts, which are prayers. The wine can be drunk not after the main toast, but after you have built onto the main toast with words of your own. You need to expand on the theme of the toast. Food is eaten in between the toasts. The people, as I mentioned already, build on the toasts and usually give toasts/prayers to each other.

There are specific toasts that are compulsory to make, they come at the beginning of the toasting, and the order varies, depending on where you are in Georgia. Since I’m in Svaneti, I’ll give the order I observed.

The first toast is to the “Big God”—in other words, the Trinity. The second toast is to St Mary. And the third toast is to St George.

One is usually expected to drink the entire glass in one take, Bolomde. No second sips. Once you’ve taken a sip, and you’ve taken the glass away from your mouth, you cannot take another sip. Also, you must always toast with your right hand. You may not drink until you have added something to the main toast, or until the person to your left has taken a sip. In my experience, except for one instance, the Tamadas have always been men. Also, women generally (no, always) prepare the food and set the table, and sit around the table, but not at the table.

Typically after the three main toasts, another important toast follows—a toast to the dead. This toast was specifically relevant to this Supra, because the husband of the woman who owns the house died recently (of drunk driving. After attending three Supras in one day, his hosts allowed him to drive away, driving his truck off a cliff).

The next important toast is to children. When I added to the main toast I said, “May we all learn to be like children, for that is the only way we’ll enter the kingdom of God.”

The next toast goes to the region one is in, in this case Svaneti. This toast reminds everyone of the beauty of the region, the history and the culture. It is a remembrance of one’s roots.

After this last toast, the Tamada is pretty free to toast to anything he or she pleases. The Tamada can even allow someone else to give a toast. I tried to do that, but was rejected. Then I was allowed to give the last toast.

The wine is usually wine from the region, but not necessarily. In Svaneti it is sometimes hard to grow grapes because of the altitude. The wine is usually red wine. The food is usually delicious, what can I say? There is usually a choice of meat, in my case if was sacrificed calf. There is also some sort of vegetable like tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, pickles, potatoes (even though those may not all be vegetables, the tomatoes being a fruit, and carrots and potatoes being tubers). The food, as I said before, is prepared by the women. They work hard at getting everything on the table: cheesebread, meat pies, calf stomach-heart-liver et al, pepper salad, Svan bread, Svan salt, nut sauce, berry sauce, and more.

If there are enough men to fill the table, or at least enough to take up half of the table, then the women sit not at the table, but on the other seats or couches away from the table.

THE END