Charted Territory

At Georgian supras, you can only drink when the tamada (toastmaster) makes a toast. There's little you can do to alter the order or content of the toasts, since stepping on the tamada's toes is a big no-no, and since you don't usually have the language proficiency to say anything other than "Nu-uh!" or its equivalent.

You can, however, lay a major smackdown on the toast by expressing your opinion through a calculated pattern of wine intake. Drinking a toast bolomde ("to the end") expresses your absolute support and agreement with the toast-- the drinker tips the empty glass over and tells you they affirm the toast with the empty space in the glass. A couple gulps, and you're half-heartedly in favor of the toast. A few sips, and you're not opposed to the toast, in theory. One sip means you're a woman. No sips and you're a snobby imperialist pig who spits on Georgian traditions and who uses ancient Georgian texts for kindling, or else you didn't understand and you're wondering why no one finds you cute and interesting anymore.

I like to follow this helpful chart:


toast to the dead, toast to the host, toast to Georgia, toast to God

toast to parents, toast to siblings

toast to sweet memories, toast to love, toast to peace

toast to women, toast to children

toast to certain former world leader of Georgian ethnicity

There's also the occasional quirky toast that gets thrown in by an inebriated tamada by the end of the evening; file those under picture #4. Nobody will notice or be offended if you don't bolomde the toast to traveling, or if you completely disregard the toast to good weather. By the time the toast to tradition comes around, I've usually stopped listening. Special honors go to Ryan Nickum's multipurpose toast to peace and love among dead businessmen; very creative for his age.

You can develop your own chart, of course. Maybe your 14 months as a teacher haven't left you with the inclination to designate children as a two-sip toast. Maybe you think the toast to women isn't misogynist, and you have the maturity to appreciate it within a cultural perspective as a toast of respect and appreciation. Maybe you think the legacy of a certain former world leader of Georgian ethnicity is ambiguous and that it's more important to defer to host country tradition than to make an unnecessary political statement. To each his own.

And watch out for the chacha.