Old New Year – Why New Year is celebrated twice in Georgia

Everyone agrees that New Year is the celebration which brings you a lot of joy and happiness. But what if it was celebrated not only once, but twice? Of course everyone would feel more delighted and would get a huge amount of positive emotions for the next year. It happens in Georgia – here New Year is celebrated twice: traditional New Year on January 1st and Old New Year on January 14th, according to the Julian calendar.

The Old New Year or the Orthodox New Year is an informal holiday, celebrated as the start of the New Year by the Julian calendar. New Year is officially celebrated around the world on January 1st, according to the Gregorian calendar, and this is the case in Georgia as well. But the Georgian Orthodox church still uses the older Julian calendar, which does not coincide with the Gregorian one as January 1 (Julian) falls on January 14 (Gregorian).

Over the years, however, celebrating the ‘old’ New Year has become more than just a religious observance as for many Georgians January 14 serves more as a final day of New Year and Christmas celebrations (the latter is observed on December 31 according to the Julian calendar, which falls on January 7 according to the Gregorian one). Subsequently after 14th of January people start folding their Christmas trees and decorations. 

Old New Year in Georgia is celebrated almost in the same way as the original one, but not with as big festivity and preparation. Traditional Georgian New Year's table (supra) is always arranged on this beautiful night. Delicious Georgian dishes represent an integral part of the New Year’s feast. Georgians believe that you should greet the New Year with generosity, so supra is always rich in mouthwatering dishes.