ქრისტე აღსდგა! Christ is risen!

Easter is the most important date of the Christian Calendar.

I started the day attending a service of the Tbilisi International Christian Fellowship held at the Holiday Inn in Saburtalo, Tbilisi. The congregation comprised of many nationalities including 29 Koreans, Russians, Chinese, Georgians, Dutch, South African, German, Azeri, Indian and Brazilian.

Part of the service included a living tableau. DaVinci’s painting of the Last Supper was recreated by thirteen men from the cosmopolitan congregation.

The disciples, having learnt one would betray the master from among them, address the congregation,each in turn, asking if they are to be the traitor.

“Is it I? Is it I?”

After the service I met with my wife, her sister and her brother-in-law and we went to visit the grave of her father and uncle.It is an Easter tradition in Georgia to visit the graves on Easter day or Easter Monday.

At the graveside a few words are said some wine is drunk and red eggs are left on the grave and wine is spilt on the grave, so the dead are remembered as part of the celebration.

After, we leave the graves for a big Easter “Supra” (feast) with Khato’s cousins.

Easter ends the long Lenten fast, my wife observed the fast following a vegan diet for the forty days before Easter. In the last week she also omitted any oil from her diet and on Good Friday (here Red Friday) she had just bread and water. I followed the Georgian fasts in my first year but have since been less strict about what I eat.

It is the practise here to dye eggs red on Good “Red” Friday, to be eaten on Easter Day with special Easter cake.

I notice one of the blogs I follow, covered the Pope’s Easter Message, this Pope has a pertinent message in these troubled times.

The Pope’s Easter Message

I was given a book at the TICF service, looks interesting.